The European Commission is awarding nearly €126 million from the Connecting Europe Facility to support three cross-border renewable energy projects involving Germany and Poland, and Latvia and Lithuania.
The funding covers two district heating projects linking Germany and Poland, and an onshore wind park near the Latvia–Lithuania border, the Commission announced on Thursday.
About €70 million will go towards developing a “climate-neutral” district heating system for the neighbouring towns of Görlitz in Germany and Zgorzelec in Poland.
More than €11 million will support work to replace coal-fired units in Słubice, Poland, with biomass boilers — systems that burn organic material such as wood — and to begin “deep decarbonisation” of district heating in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
Over €44 million has been allocated to a wind project expected to build around 30 turbines and generate up to 680 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity a year, the Commission said, adding that a GWh is a unit of energy roughly equivalent to the annual electricity use of several hundred typical EU households.
Rules for cross-border renewables funding
The grants are being made through a Connecting Europe Facility programme designed to support cooperation between EU member states on renewable energy projects, the Commission noted.
EU countries have committed to a 42.5% binding target for renewables in the bloc’s final energy consumption by 2030, with an additional 2.5% aspirational target, under the revised Renewable Energy Directive.
To qualify for this cross-border funding, projects must meet criteria in the Connecting Europe Facility regulation, including having a cooperation arrangement between countries and demonstrating cost savings and overall net benefits.
The next call for proposals for cross-border renewable energy projects under the programme is expected in November 2026.
