Solar Foods receives a €34 million grant

Business Finland has approved a €34 million grant funding to Solar Foods, the single largest public grant funding for cellular agriculture in the world.

The grant is the first batch of funding for Solar Foods due the recent Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) notification.

In September 2022, Solar Foods was selected to be a part of the European Commission’s strategic hydrogen economy core.

Solar Foods’ €600 million investment programme, which also includes the future Factory 02, was notified as a hydrogen IPCEI project with a maximum state aid of €110 million.

Solar Foods said it will use the grant to ramp up its hydrogen fermentation facility, Factory 01, and enter the engineering phase with the following Factory 02.

The ‘hydrogen IPCEI’ initiative is about research, innovation, and first industrial deployment (FID) of relevant infrastructure in the European hydrogen value chain.

The grant decision supports the first phase of the IPCEI project roadmap where the engineering, construction and ramp-up of Solar Foods Factory 01 is central.

Pasi Vainikka, CEO and co-founder of Solar Foods said the grant demonstrates how Finland’s innovation system is ready to think outside the box and wants to support the commercialisation of scientific discoveries.

“We do not really fit into any single traditional research and innovation category: we do clean-tech, food-tech, hydrogen technology and on a systemic level support the restoration of natural ecosystems,” Pasi said.

Process installations in Factory 01 are set up to begin in the first quarter of 2023. Factory 01 is aimed to be fully operational in Q1/2024.

The data and operational experiences from the factory are applied in finalising the engineering for Factory 02.

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