The European Commission, European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Ventures establish a new €100 million fund to support clean energy investments

Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe (BEV-E), a new €100 million investment fund was established by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Ventures during the Fourth Mission Innovation Ministerial meeting in Vancouver, Canada.          

The fund will help develop innovative European companies and bring radically new clean energy technologies to the market. It will support Europe’s best clean energy entrepreneurs whose solutions can deliver significant and lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The first of its kind, it caters to the capital intensity and long development horizons that energy technologies need.

Funding for BEV-E will include a €50 million contribution from the European Investment Bank guaranteed by InnovFin, a financial instrument funded through the EU’s research and innovation programme, and a €50 million contribution from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investor-led fund committed to supporting cutting-edge companies in the energy sector.

The new fund will contribute to fulfilling the EU’s commitments outlined in the Commission’s “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package, including proposals designed to support clean energy innovation, increase energy efficiency, boost renewable energy usage and reform the European energy market. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have adopted all proposals from the package.

Background

In the margins of the COP21 climate conference in Paris, global leaders launched Mission Innovation, an international partnership to accelerate clean energy innovation and provide a long-term global response to climate challenge. By joining Mission Innovation, 23 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the EU) pledged to double their clean energy research and innovation funding by 2021.

On the same occasion, a group of investors announced their intention to drive innovation from laboratories to the market by investing long-term capital at unprecedented levels in early-stage technology development in Mission Innovation participating countries, thereby creating the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.

In December 2017, during the One Planet Summit in Paris, Breakthrough Energy announced the piloting of public-private partnerships with five Mission Innovation members, including the European Commission.

The agreement between the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Ventures builds on the Memorandum of Understandingsigned on 17 October 2018 by Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and Bill Gates, Chairman of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

For More Information

–   Press release: signing of Memorandum of Understanding in October 2018

–   Breakthrough Energy Ventures

–   Mission Innovation