Horizon 2020

In this section we follow activities related to EU funded demonstration projects in Western Sweden. The aim is to provide actors with relevant information to support them in the process to initiate project consortia, apply for funding and to run projects with demonstration activities in Western Sweden and Europe.

Below you find the bi-weekly newsletter (which you also receive through our LinkedIn group) Under EU Funding you find useful information about open calls and resources for applicants. Under EU Projects you find information about on-going EU-funded projects, either with demonstration activities in Western Sweden or with only participants from Western Sweden.

EU update for the GAME Network

EU investigates Swedish biofuel fixing
The European Commission said on 7 December that it had opened a formal antitrust investigation to look into suspicions that three ethanol producers have colluded to manipulate benchmark prices used by the industry. The Commission said in a statement it was assessing the actions of Abengoa SA of Spain, Belgium’s Alcogroup SA and Lantmännen ek for of Sweden after unannounced inspections over the past three years.
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Breakthrough Energy Coalition
As COP21 opened in Paris 30 November, Bill Gates announced the “Breakthrough energy coalition” uniting the efforts of two dozens of other billionaire philanthropists such as Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos to sponsor energy that doesn’t produce carbon. Nineteen governments, including the United States, China, Sweden and India, will join in a “Mission Innovation” initiative that commits governments to a doubling of public investments in basic energy research over the next five years.
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700 cities promise renewable energy transition by 2050
The mayors of 700 cities have committed to generating 100% of their energy from renewable sources by 2050. 700 city mayors from around the world met in the margins of the COP21 at the Paris town hall on 4 December to pursue a more ambitious agenda than that supported by their national governments. Their message was clear: cities, which are responsible for around 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, want to reach beyond the commitments of their national governments and lead the fight against climate change.
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EU update for the GAME Network

Circular economy roadmap – the next step
The Commission is aiming to present a new, more ambitious circular economy strategy late in 2015, to transform Europe into a more competitive resource-efficient economy, addressing a range of economic sectors, including waste. As part of the process, the Commission has run a public consultation on the subject and the contributions are now published.
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EU boost energy efficiency investment The European Commission initiative, to be
launched next year, will make it easier for smaller energy efficiency projects, such as building renovations, to get EU funding. The plan, “a matter of priority”, is mentioned in a leaked draft of the executive’s forthcoming State of the Energy Union report. The leaked draft signals a renewe
d focus on enforcement. “To drive down emissions, effective enforcement of regulatory standards is of critical importance. This work acquires extra importance in the aftermath of the Volkswagen affair,” it said.
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EU leadership in Ocean Energy under threat

European regions in the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland are world leaders in pioneering ocean energy, but risk losing that status to international competitors, unless public support for the technology is stepped up. Local authorities in Scotland, Wales, and Brittany, have secured nati
onal and EU funding to run expensive test projects. Ocean energy is an umbrella term covering a number of different technologies. Demonstrating that the renewable system works is vital to entice private investors, put off by high testing costs, to back the technology. Without publicly supported capital intensive demonstrations, private investors won’t back ocean energy.
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EU update for the GAME Network

 EU heating strategy draft favours district heating
Renewable energy already accounts for 26% of electricity production in the EU but just 16.4% of heating and cooling. Heating and, to a lesser degree, cooling account for around 40% of European Union energy consumption, but are only indirectly targeted by existing EU policies, which focus more on power production with renewable energy. The Commission will probably publish its heating and cooling strategy in February.
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EU countries call for limits on truck CO2 emissions
Britain and three other countries have joined calls for mandatory EU limits on the amount of CO2 pumped out by trucks, which account for 30% of road transport emissions. The European Commission has introduced a limit of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) by 2021 for cars and vans, but emissions from heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) are unregulated. The United States by contrast in June proposed tighter standards on truck emissions.
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Sweden leaves CCS comeback ‘action plan’
Creating European hubs to capture and store carbon dioxide would be the cheapest route to low-carbon energy. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has failed so far in Europe to draw enough investment. To overcome that, the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP), an industry group that advises the European Commission, has presented an action plan that includes CCS hubs, straddling industries and even national borders, to allow economies of scale. ZEP brings together companies such as Shell, Total, BP and Statoil. But four utilities, including Germany’s RWE and Sweden’s Vattenfall quit the platform, saying CCS was too costly.
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EU update for the GAME Network

Innovative UnionInnovation Union Scoreboard
Sweden’s innovation system is once more in first position in the EU with the overall ranking remaining relatively stable. The most innovative countries have balanced innovation systems with strengths in all dimensions, but in the eighth dimension Economic effects Finland and Sweden score just below the EU average.
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green Vehicle

Green Vehicle call
Two calls for proposals in the areas of Green Vehicles and Mobility for Growth opened last week, with a deadline on 15 October, in total €48,5 million Euro. The Green Vehicles call addresses road transport challenges such as improvements in energy efficiency and the use of new types of non-conventional energies. The Mobility for Growth call addresses mode-specific and transport integration challenges.
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Work Smarter, Not Harder to Improve TransportationVOR-M8A3905-535x321
This is a reminder to continually search for better solutions to the problems we face. There is a great need for better solutions to our transportation problems. Last week Todd Litman, Executive Director at Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Canada gave a very good presentation at the seminar Mobility in Smart Cities in connection with the Volvo Ocean Race. In his presentation Todd Litman, presented that too often, solutions consist of simply more of the same: building more roads, expanding parking facilities, maintaining low fuel prices, buying more automobiles, increasing transit subsidies, and generally devoting ever more private and public resources to transportation.
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EU update for the GAME Network

Kostnadsfri Horizon 2020 rådgivninghorizon-2020-v1
Hjälp med att reda ut begreppen och gå igenom dina möjligheter till bidrag från EU:s forsknings- och innovationsprogram Horizon 2020 och Eurostars. Företag är välkomna att ställa sina frågor via webben med svar inom 48 timmar. Rådgivningen ges av nätverket EUSMESupport2020 vilket består av åtta forskningsorganisationer.
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Energy Union on road trip
energy-union-tourThe aim of the tour is to engage in an intensive dialogue with governments, national parliaments and the European Parliament, as well as relevant stakeholders, including social partners, representatives of the business community and NGOs. In the weeks and months ahead, he will visit Member States to present the opportunities that the Energy Union will bring to European citizens and businesses.
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Stöd för nya miljöprojekt
Västra Götalandsregionen har under flera år bidragit till satsningar för mer medveten konsumtion och nya affärsmöjligheter för resurseffektiva och giftfria produkter och tjänster. För att samla ihop likartade projektidéer eller idéer där flera medverkande – som offentliga aktörer, näringsliv eller ideella organisationer – skulle kunna ge större tyngd, vill miljöavdelningen först ha in en kortfattad idéskiss. Sista dag är för inlämning av en idéskiss 12 juni 2015.
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EU update for the GAME Network

EU agree to limit food-based biofuels
Unlimited use of biofuels over the years has increased food prices and deforestation, as biofuels and food crops compete for the same agricultural land. The new legislaton will cap the amount of biofuels from agricultural crops used to achieve the EU’s transport targets of 10% renewable energy by 2020.
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Green chemistry victim of EU biofuel reform
The new biofuels law risks protecting fuel companies that require state support at the EU taxpayer’s expense, write the CEOs of Arizona Chemical, Respol Resinas, and Forchem. With a twisted definition of “residue”, fuel companies in Finland and Sweden are able to circumventing obligatory sustainability criteria in EU’s renewable energy legislation.
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Sjöpung testas som substrat i biogasproduktion
Företaget Marin Biogas har fått utvecklingsbidrag från EU och Energimyndigheten på 23 miljoner kr för att utveckla ett hittills nytt och outnyttjat biobränsle från havet. Det handlar om sjöpung – ett marint ryggsträngsdjur vars biomassa är tänkt att användas för biogasproduktion. De sjöpungar som skördas inom projektet ska levereras till Falkenbergs Biogas där E.ON är huvudägare.
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Uppdatering för Nätverket GAME

Ren elbuss snart i Göteborg
Eletricity
Stockholm fick på måndagen sin första linje med så gott som utsläppsfria bussar. Om tre månader är det dags för ännu renare 55:an i Göteborg. Den 15 juni startar linje 55 mellan Chalmers och Lindholmen via Götaplatsen och Nordstan.
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Samarbete för ökad biogasanvändning
Skåne, Västra Götaland, Danmark och Norge vill skapa ett gemensamt EU-projekt för att få fart på biogasproduktionen. Det nya projektet kallas Biogas 2020 och ska ta vid där det förra, kallat Kask, avslutades. Alla tre länder har högt uppsatta klimatmål där förnybara energikällor under 2020-talet ska stå för mellan 50-67 procent av förbrukningen.
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EU update for the GAME Network

Role of waste-to-energy in Smart cities
The versatility of waste-to-energy was demonstrated in two presentations at a conference on “Heating and Cooling in the European Energy Transition”. During the Workshop “The technology challenge”, Jonas Cognell – Senior Programme Manager, Smart Cities, Göteborg Energi AB – demonstrated that Waste-to-Energy is a key partner for cities in their pursuit of a stable and sustainable heating supply.
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EU update on regional funding opportunities

Mer hållbarhet och växande företag
Det är målet när Västsveriges nya strukturfondspartnerskap ska fördela totalt 1.3 miljarder kronor för att utveckla Västsvenska företag. Partnerskap leds av Birgitta Losman, regionråd i Västra Götalandsregionen och EU-pengarna ska stärka de västsvenska tillväxtstrategierna Västra Götaland 2020 och Tillväxtstrategi för Halland 2014-2020.
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EU update on funding opportunity for Energy Efficiency

Horizon 2020’s Energy Challenge
Secure, clean and efficient energy for Europe. As part of the Horizon 2020 program, the European Commission is funding projects that support the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system.
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