Tendersinfo keep you informed about the latest events in the national and international Procurement Industry. Procurement News provides in-depth coverage of the procurement industry, including contract awards, contract additions, new contract wins, mergers and acquisitions. Tendersinfo through its tender news section provides an update on all domestic and global tendering opportunities, invitation to bid & trade leads.
Estonia,Luxembourg : #InnovFin: EUR 12 million loan from EU to Estonian clean tech company Elcogen
Publish Date : 12-Feb-2019
- EUR 12 million quasi-equity facility for further research and development, supported by the European Commission under the InnovFin programme.
- Very first InnovFin support for a company in the Baltics provided by the EIB; financing will enable Elcogen to bring its highly efficient fuel cell technology to the market.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 12 million quasi-equity loan facility with Estonian company Elcogen in lemiste city (Tallinn) today. The loan is the first in the Baltic countries to get support under the InnovFin EU-finance for innovators programme, which is financed from the EUs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Specifically, the financing falls under InnovFins Energy Demonstration Projects (EDP) facility.
The goal of the financing is to aid in the set-up of a demonstration manufacturing plant for cells and stacks used in solid oxide fuel cell systems, creating highly skilled local jobs in the process. The financing enables the company to invest in the research and development of fuel cells, to increase production volumes and to start its mass-manufacturing processes. This provides Elcogen with the opportunity to bring competitive fuel cell-based electricity and hydrogen solutions to the mass market and meet the growing demand from customers, including leading industrial companies in both Europe and Asia.
The EIBs Vice President Alexander Stubb commented: This project is the result of years of extensive research, both internally and in collaboration with leading universities and institutes. Elcogen has managed to come up with one of the most efficient fuel cell technologies around, and I think its only logical that the EIB and InnovFin should support such European innovators to keep and support this know-how within the European innovation ecosystem.
Elcogens CEO, Enn unpuu, said: We have proven to our customers that fuel cells developed in Estonia, in cooperation with leading European research institutes, are the most efficient in the world. The EIB loan is an important milestone in bringing our technology to the mass market. In three years time we see ourselves as the world's leading producer of fuel cells, because this is the only way that our customers will be able to provide affordable and innovative energy solutions to end users.
Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: This deal with Elcogen is a good example to show that the future of innovation is science-based. We are now making headway in the transition to a resource-efficient and climate-resilient future and we need to bring more ideas like these to market with the help of EU funding.
At completion, the Elcogen plans to manufacture approximately 2 million cells per year, accounting for an electrical capacity of 50 MW. The fuel cell technology that Elcogen has developed converts a range of fuels, mainly hydrogen and biogas, into electrical energy with a very high electrical efficiency compared to other commercially available fuel cells.
Elcogens patented technology has the potential to become less expensive than competing technologies as it uses standard processes and widely available materials in cell manufacturing. Key applications for the systems using this type of fuel cell technology are residential power generation systems, industrial power generation units and further off-grid power generation.
