The European Commission has approved €125.8 million ($202.8 million) worth of grants to finance actions on three cross-border renewable energy projects.
Two of the awards relate to German-Polish district heating projects and the third is to support coordination of a cross-border onshore wind park near the Latvia-Lithuania border.
Funded through the European Union (EU) budget’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy, the selected actions will support these energy infrastructure investments, contribute to the EU’s decarbonisation objectives, and strengthen energy integration between member states.
The UNITED HEAT Project — Unified Network for Innovative Transition in Energy Decarbonisation of HEATing — aims to develop climate-neutral district heating in Görlitz, Germany, and Zgorzelec, Poland.
In addition, the TWIN HEAT Project will fully decarbonise heating in Słubice, Poland, and initiate the deep decarbonisation of district heating in Frankfurt, Germany, through a coordinated cross-border approach based on renewable energy sources.
The European Commission says this action’s main objective is to replace the existing coal-fired heat generation units in Słubice with two modern biomass boilers using sustainable biomass, each with a thermal capacity of 6 megawatts.
Meanwhile, the UELJO WP Project aims to develop a cross-border onshore wind park near the Latvia-Lithuania border. It is expected to comprise around 30 wind turbines and generate up to 680 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year.
By making efficient use of shared transmission infrastructure, the project will contribute to the integration of renewable energy into the Baltic electricity system, support the decarbonisation of the regional energy sector, and strengthen cross-border cooperation between Latvia and Lithuania.
The action supports the first implementation phase of the project, particularly in Latvia, and includes constructing the balance-of-plant infrastructure, implementing the grid connection works, and installing wind turbines in Latvia.
From infrastructure to critical minerals
While projects such as these are critical to Europe’s transition away from fossil fuels, the infrastructure required to build them ultimately depends on another part of the supply chain: minerals.
Renewable energy technologies require significant quantities of metals and critical minerals across everything from electrical wiring and transmission infrastructure to generators, heating systems, and energy storage.
District heating technologies including geothermal systems, solar thermal heating, and large-scale heat pumps can require materials such as copper, aluminium, silica, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and titanium.
Wind power adds another layer of mineral demand. Turbines require large quantities of steel and other structural metals, as well as copper and, in some turbine technologies, rare earths used in permanent magnets.
As Europe accelerates investment in renewable energy infrastructure, securing reliable supplies of these materials becomes increasingly important.
That creates an opportunity further upstream in the supply chain for mining explorers and developers, whose work to identify, define, and develop new mineral deposits can help establish the resources needed to support future energy infrastructure.
One example is Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX), which is advancing its Centurion and Madman projects in Western Australia.
Centurion is a copper-gold project that Buxton considers a ‘standout’ asset due to its huge ‘size of prize’ potential that is supported by a compelling geological and structural setting.
Meanwhile, Madman is a new exploration opportunity with the potential to uncover valuable gold and copper deposits.
In late August 2026, Buxton received assay results from a maiden drilling program at the Madman Project in Western Australia, which supported the area’s gold prospectivity.
Managing Director Marty Moloney says the maiden drilling program has confirmed the prospectivity of the Madman system.
“This maiden drilling program, a wildcat 40km from the nearest hole, has established that Madman hosts a fertile and apparently large hydrothermal system. In that context, detecting gold in MD002DD is highly significant,” Moloney notes.
“The new assay data provides pathfinder signatures that tell us we need to look laterally and/or deeper in the system. Gold appears to be accompanied by pyrrhotite — a highly conductive mineral also found at Havieron.”
Buxton also secured a drill rig to test a large electromagnetic conductor at Madman. The conductor is considered the highest-priority target, with its size highlighting the project’s scale potential.
McKay Drilling has confirmed rig availability, with mobilisation scheduled for late September. A planned follow-up hole will be collared at the existing MD003DD drill pad.
A critical part of the supply chain
While copper and other base metals are fundamental to renewable energy infrastructure, rare earths represent another critical part of the supply chain, particularly for technologies such as permanent magnet wind turbines.
This makes the development of new rare earths resources relevant as Europe seeks to expand renewable energy generation while reducing its exposure to concentrated global supply chains.
Earlier this year, Orbit Resources (ASX:OBT) announced its plans to progress an initial public offering (IPO) of Matrix Critical Minerals to become a dedicated ASX-listed rare earths explorer.
Under the proposed structure, Matrix would own the Narraburra Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in New South Wales, which has a resource of 94.9 million tonnes (Mt) @ 739 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide (TREO).
With an attributed agreed value of $12.5 million, Narraburra is listed as an official critical minerals project by the Australian Government’s Australian Trade and Investment Commission.
Following the decision to progress the IPO of Matrix, Orbit Resources Managing Director Jeneta Owens says Narraburra is a substantial Australian REE project with a genuinely differentiated product profile, particularly its yttrium and heavy rare earth content.
“This is incredibly important given the current market, which is actively seeking non-Chinese supply,” Owens says.
Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) owns the Eurelia Project in South Australia, which encompasses a large area prospective for carbonatite-hosted REE mineralisation.
Previously explored for diamonds and copper, with little focus on rare earths prospectivity, the project is a recognised alkaline intrusive centre, with multiple REE-enriched carbonatite and kimberlite intrusions.
Rock chip sampling and trenching have previously delineated a more than 10km trend of coincident elevated niobium and REEs at the project, with up to 819ppm niobium and up to 1.02% TREO in trench samples.
Drilling has also confirmed widespread REE enrichment of mantle-derived alkaline rocks in the region. Several high-priority targets remain at Eurelia, including an E1 magnetic target.
The importance of projects such as Narraburra and Eurelia extends beyond individual resource development. China currently dominates the global rare earths market, controlling roughly 70% of mining, 90% of processing and separation, and over 93% of permanent magnet manufacturing.
For Europe, expanding renewable generation therefore involves more than simply financing wind farms, heating networks, and transmission infrastructure. It also requires a resilient upstream supply chain capable of delivering the minerals and metals needed to build these technologies.
Explorers and developers targeting copper, rare earths, and other critical minerals are consequently operating at an important point in the energy transition supply chain.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Main image: iStock
