EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for “RFCS-2025 Coal Pilot and Demonstration Projects”

1. Single Market Access

• Direct entry to a market of 450+ million people enables pilots to be validated under multiple geological, climatic and socio-economic conditions, proving replicability before global roll-out.

• Harmonised CE-marking and product-safety rules reduce certification time for equipment such as CCUS rigs, geothermal drilling tools or methane-capture hardware.

• Access to EU “Green Public Procurement” (≈€2 trn/year) allows successful demonstrators to become preferred solutions for municipalities reclaiming coal sites, accelerating commercial uptake.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory multinational consortia tap the complementary expertise of coal regions in transition (e.g. Silesia – PL, Astúrias – ES, Ruhr – DE, Jiu Valley – RO, Upper Nitra – SK), shortening learning curves and avoiding duplication.

• Shared pilot data feed into EU repositories (e.g. JRC’s RAW-materials Information System, CCUS Observatory), fostering open science and enabling SME spin-offs.

• Alignment with EIT RawMaterials, EIT InnoEnergy and the Clean Energy Transition Partnership creates fast lanes to demo sites and first customers.

3. EU Policy Alignment

• Delivers tangible milestones toward the Green Deal, Fit-for-55 and Methane Strategy by demonstrating:

• CO₂ capture >90 % efficiency on legacy power assets;

• Methane capture/utilisation reducing CH₄ leaks by ≥50 % from closing mines;

• Geothermal heat offtake substituting fossil heating in coal towns.

• Supports the Just Transition Mechanism by embedding worker-reskilling work-packages that dovetail with ESF+ programmes.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation

• EU environmental acquis (Water Framework, Industrial Emissions, Landfill & Waste Directives) offers a single compliance baseline—saving up to 20-30 % regulatory alignment costs when scaling pilots across borders.

• Early dialogue with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) streamlines authorisations for novel binders, adsorbents or secondary raw materials extracted from coal waste.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Synergies with 3 000+ organisations in the RFCS community, 23 EU Geological Surveys (EuroGeoSurveys), and more than 40 geothermal test sites.

• Leveraging Digital Europe infrastructures (e.g. HPC for reservoir modelling, the GAIA-X data spaces) cuts simulation time by 70 %.

• Potential to combine with European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition or Accelerator for commercial scale-up funding up to €15 m per company.

6. Funding Synergies and Leverage

• Complementarity with Cohesion Policy funds and the €40 bn Just Transition Fund (JTF) for capex-heavy demo infrastructure.

• Possible blending with InvestEU for loan guarantees, de-risking first-of-a-kind CCUS or geothermal plants.

• Horizon Europe Cluster 5 calls on CCUS and geothermal can provide parallel R&D grants, while LIFE can co-finance environmental remediation pilots.

7. Scale and Impact Potential

• The call’s focus on pilot & demonstration (TRL 6-8) de-risks technologies sufficiently for rapid replication via public-private partnerships in at least 14 EU coal regions earmarked for phase-out by 2030.

• Successful projects can feed results into standardisation bodies (CEN/TC 160 for Mine Closure, CEN/TC 377 for CCUS), shaping EU norms and securing long-term competitive advantage.

• Socio-economic impact: creation of up to 2 new green jobs per €100 000 grant in affected regions, measurable reduction of healthcare costs linked to mine-derived pollutants.

8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale

• Aggregated demand from multiple Member States allows economies of scale for equipment suppliers, lowering LCOE of geothermal re-use projects by 10-15 % compared with single-country roll-outs.

• Visibility in EU-level fora (e.g. Coal Regions in Transition Platform) attracts private investors and facilitates policy uptake, accelerating market entry by 2-3 years.

• Demonstrates EU leadership globally in managing coal transition, providing exportable models that strengthen Europe’s competitive edge in clean-up and CCUS services.

Bottom Line: Positioning a proposal within the RFCS-2025-01-PDP call unlocks unparalleled EU-wide assets—finance, market access, regulatory certainty and a deep innovation network—that no national programme alone can match, maximising both technological success and socio-economic impact across Europe’s transitioning coal regions.