The deployment of offshore wind energy is at the core of delivering the European Green Deal. The Communication on achieving the EU’s offshore renewables ambitions (COM/2023/668), published in October 2023, underlines the Commission’s continued commitment to reaching the offshore renewables targets and takes stock of the progress achieved so far.
It underlines the Member States’ ambition to achieve 111 GW of offshore renewables by 2030 which is nearly twice as high as the ambition set out by the European Commission in the EU strategy on offshore renewable energy (COM(2020)741) in November 2020.
There is a big variety of EU funding programmes available to finance energy projects.
Those particularly relevant for offshore renewable energy (wind and ocean) are presented below and in a regularly updated document which provides an overview of the various instruments.
As a general rule, when combining multiple EU funding instruments, state aid rules apply and double funding of the same elements within one project is not possible (meaning that the co-financing rate exceeds 100%).
Funds and programmes
The EU funds and programmes listed also provide information about eligible investments, previously funded offshore projects and how different EU programmes can be combined.
- Horizon Europe Cluster 5
- EU Innovation Council
- LIFE – Clean Energy Transition sub-programme
- European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund
- BlueInvest
- Innovation Fund
- Cohesion policy funds
- Connecting Europe Facility – Transport
- Connecting Europe Facility – Energy
- InvestEU Fund
- Modernisation Fund
- Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism
Source: European Commission
