Project makes waves with €20m

A project designed to generate energy from the waves off the west coast of Ireland was awarded almost €20m by the European Commission to scale up its plans.

The money comes from a fund worth up to €4bn from the sale of carbon emission licences. Just over €1.2bn of this was awarded to 23 innovative renewable energy projects in 16 EU countries.

This is the first time the fund has been used and was described by Connie Hedegaard, the climate action commissioner, as a “Robin Hood mechanism that makes polluters pay for large-scale demonstration of new low-carbon technologies”.