Brussels approves $3.4 billion in Spanish state aid to highly efficient power

It announced on Wednesday that the European Commission had approved a 3.1-billion-euro ($3.4-billion) scheme of state aid to Spain to help support electricity production from highly efficient power plants. This comes amid a push by the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The support will be available for new or substantially renovated combined heat and energy (CHP) plants?using bioliquids, solid biomass, and natural gas.

To avoid perpetuating the dependence on fossil fuels, natural gas?projects should include equipment that allows the use of at a minimum?10% renewable hydrogen by volume.

The European Union is currently aiming to achieve climate neutrality in 2050 and a 55% reduction of net greenhouse gas emissions.

The Spanish scheme is open to CHP operators who'meet the definition for high-efficiency cogeneration in the EU Energy Efficiency Directive.

The Commission announced that the aid will be given as a compensation premium to "compensate" for investments made in bringing CHPs online and for operating expenses calculated and updated on a quarterly basis. (Reporting and editing by David Latona, Andrei Khalip and Jan Harvey).

(source: Reuters)