Preparatory studies in the meaning of Article 7(3) of the CEF Regulation allow for support to both EU Member States but also private project promoters in order to advance cooperation ideas, create momentum amongst involved stakeholders and with this generate a pipeline of CB RES projects. They provide specifically support to the project before aquiring the CB RES status.

The purpose of support for preparatory studies is to overcome the obstacles that have in the past prevented cooperation projects from going ahead, such as uncertainty on the allocation of costs and benefits between involved Member States or the additional complexity of setting up cross-border support.

Projects that contribute to the REPowerEU objectives and the initiatives, announced as part of the REPowerEU plan from May 2022, would be particularly relevant for the call. This is valid for projects that are in line with the EU solar strategy and the European Solar Rooftop Initiative and would contribute to the REPowerEU target of over 320 GW of solar photovoltaic newly installed by 2025 and almost 600 GW by 2030. Relevant would also be projects that accelerate renewable hydrogen as a replacement of natural gas, coal and oil in hard-to-decarbonise industries and transport and contribute to the REPowerEU target of 10 million tonnes of domestic renewable hydrogen production.

Proposals cannot combine preparatory studies and technical studies and works.

Examples of activities, which could be part of studies as per Article 7 (3), include:

• pre-feasibility studies, used to start exploring (mainly through desktop studies) the possible geographical sites ;
• exploratory tasks to assess the overall cost and benefits of the project; first evaluation of overall cost and benefits of the project, including cost of energy generation, system integration, cost of support, greenhouse gas emissions, security of supply, air and other local pollution, innovation;
• analysis of wider system-related aspects e.g. aspects of market and grid integration, grid financing aspects, the integration of additional storage investments, or of transport and/or digital related investments for synergetic elements;
• identification of possible financing sources, assessing Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) potential;
• communication and stakeholder involvement activities;
• cooperation activities between Member States, including the assessment of cost-benefit sharing.