At Synergy International, we are big fans of ChatGPT, just like the evil geniuses at Microsoft and its millions and millions of its newly devoted followers.
For anyone contemplating a weekly encounter with Blogger’s Block, ChatGPT is a massive comfort. Why bother to think to write 700 words when you can just enter a search category and let ChatGPT reach its Monte Carlo simulated conclusions?
What does ChatGPT have to do with Sustainable Energy and Green Hydrogen production in Portugal, our readers (audience up to 45 last week!) might ask.
As we promised in our intro Blog, our intention is to now follow-up with a discussion about the European Union’s importance for funding Sustainable Energy projects.
This is a tough ask because there are so many important EU initiatives when it comes to Sustainable Energy.
There is no better place to start than the EU’s Innovation Fund.
ChatGPT does a very good job summarising the programme (Just enter “Write a 700 word blog on EU’s Innovation Fund”), perhaps even better that the EU’s actual website https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/innovation-fund_en
The ChatGPT blog quickly declares that the Innovation Fund is a €10 billion cog in the EU’s Green New Deal program “which is a set of policies and actions aimed at making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.”
It’s clear that €10 billion is an important pool of matching capital for start-up companies like Synergy International, along with all of the others searching for investment capital and EU funding.
Let’s just sit back and enjoy AI efforts for the rest of the overview:
“The EU Innovation Fund works in two phases. In the first phase, project developers submit a concept note outlining their project's objectives, technology, and expected impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The EIB reviews the concept notes and selects the most promising projects based on their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, innovation, and scalability.
In the second phase, project developers submit a full application that includes a detailed business plan, financial model, and project implementation schedule. The EIB reviews the full applications and selects the projects that meet the fund's criteria for funding. The selected projects receive financial support in the form of grants, loans, and other forms of funding.
The EU Innovation Fund provides funding for up to 60% of eligible project costs, with the remaining 40% financed by the project developer. The fund also provides additional support for projects that are located in less-developed regions of the EU or have a higher risk profile.”
If a self-driving car is this smooth and efficient, bring ‘em on with the first wave of Green H2 passenger vehicles.
We know from the initial wave of ChatGPT criticisms, the human blogger’s role should be to provide more depth and context lacking in the algo’s summary of information.
Thus now is the time to make clear the importance of the EU’s funding for sustainable energy on a European country-specific level. In our case, the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Plan has pledged €16.6 billion to Portugal with €6.3 billion targeted at climate and green initiatives.
A large tranche of this EU “green transition” funding has already gone to urban infrastructure projects like expansion of the metros in Lisbon and Porto, along with other modes of sustainable national transport.
But let’s not overlook the ongoing €185 million of support for renewable hydrogen production in Portugal. It’s true the EU has created a wonderful wave of opportunity via its Portugal funding program for Synergy International to ride.
Portuguese institutions, such as its development bank Banco Portuguêse do Fometo, are working to promote co-investment bridges between the EU and the private sector in the venture capital space. This means the EU is willing to take on majority of project risk on a combined capital allocations of up to €55 million.
That’s a very substantial mitigation for the promotors and private capital investors involved in a sustainable energy development. And that is the type of leadership on project risk sharing that makes private investors stand up and take notice, especially for Green Hydrogen developments like ours that boast outstanding return on investment metrics.
Like everything in life, the real world is a lot more nuanced and vastly more interesting than anything AI is current capable of sequencing.