The European Commission has approved €125.81 million in Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy funding for three cross-border renewable energy projects, supporting renewable district heating in Germany and Poland and a planned onshore wind project connecting Latvia and Lithuania.
The funding will support construction and implementation activities under the EU’s Cross-Border Renewable Energy (CB RES) framework. Two awards will advance district heating projects involving German-Polish border cities, while the third will support the first development phase of a cross-border wind park near the Latvia-Lithuania border.
The European Commission said the selected projects are intended to advance renewable energy infrastructure, strengthen energy integration between Member States and contribute to the EU’s decarbonisation objectives.
Three projects receive CEF Energy support
The largest award, worth €70 million, goes to the latest works phase of the UNITED HEAT project, which is developing climate-neutral district heating systems in Görlitz, Germany, and Zgorzelec, Poland.
The new funding will support construction of a cross-border pipeline designed to physically connect the two district heating networks. The infrastructure will enable heat exchange and system balancing between the two sides of the border while integrating heat sources developed during earlier stages of the project.
UNITED HEAT received CB RES status in 2022 and has already progressed through a study phase and two previous works sub-projects in 2024 and 2025. The newly funded action represents its final works sub-projects, according to the European Commission.
A second German-Polish initiative, TWIN HEAT, will receive €11.41 million for measures aimed at decarbonising district heating in Słubice, Poland, while supporting the deeper decarbonisation of the neighbouring system in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
The funded works will replace existing coal-fired heat generation units in Słubice with two biomass boilers, each with a thermal capacity of 6 MW. The boilers are planned to use sustainable wood chips as biomass fuel.
The third award, worth €44.40 million, supports the first development stage of the UELJO WP cross-border wind project near the Latvia-Lithuania border.
The wider project is expected to comprise around 30 wind turbines and generate up to 680 GWh of renewable electricity annually. It is also designed to make use of shared transmission infrastructure to support the integration of renewable electricity into the Baltic power system.
The funded first implementation phase focuses particularly on the Latvian side and includes balance-of-plant construction, grid connection works and installation of wind turbines.
Cross-border infrastructure at the centre of funding
The three projects illustrate different ways in which renewable energy infrastructure can be developed across national borders.
For district heating, the UNITED HEAT project is focused on physical interconnection between two municipal heating systems. This allows infrastructure and heat sources on both sides of the border to operate as part of a coordinated system rather than as entirely separate networks.
TWIN HEAT takes a different approach, combining renewable heat generation in Poland with a coordinated decarbonisation strategy involving the neighbouring German system. Its immediate technology focus is biomass-fired heat generation through two 6 MW boilers.
The UELJO WP project instead addresses renewable electricity generation and transmission. Its planned wind capacity will rely on cross-border cooperation and shared transmission infrastructure to integrate generation into the wider Baltic electricity system.
EU framework for cross-border renewable energy
The projects are being funded through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy, which supports cross-border energy infrastructure and, through its CB RES framework, renewable energy projects involving cooperation between EU Member States.
Only projects that have obtained CB RES status can apply for funding through the CEF Energy CB RES window. The European Commission adopted a new CB RES list on 11 September 2026, with the list scheduled to enter into force on 1 October 2026. The next CEF Energy call for proposals for CB RES projects is expected to open in November 2026.
Bioenergy Business Analysis
The funding package demonstrates how EU support for renewable energy is extending beyond individual generation assets to the infrastructure needed to connect energy systems across borders. In the district heating projects, the focus is on replacing fossil-based heat and creating physical links between neighbouring municipal networks, while the Latvia-Lithuania project combines renewable generation with shared grid infrastructure.
For the bioenergy sector, the €11.41 million TWIN HEAT award is particularly relevant because it links district-heating decarbonisation directly with biomass deployment. The use of two 6 MW wood-chip boilers shows the role that locally supplied solid biomass can play within broader renewable heat strategies, alongside infrastructure and system integration.
More broadly, the three awards indicate that access to cross-border infrastructure and coordinated planning is an important component of renewable energy deployment. The projects also show that EU funding can be directed towards different energy systems like heat and electricity where cooperation between Member States forms part of the project design.
The next CB RES funding call, expected in November 2026, will provide another opportunity for projects seeking EU support under the framework.
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