Inflation “consumes” up to 30% of Bosch investment support in Aveiro
German group admits "real risk" of consortium losing almost a third of the €56 million funded by the PRR due to inflation.
Bosch leads one of the first investment megaprojects to receive funding from the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), under the so-called Mobilizing Agendas for Business Innovation. In a partnership with the University of Aveiro, among other entities of the scientific system and 22 national companies, such as Revigrés, ILLIANCE is directed to the energy transition of the air conditioning sector and foresees a total investment of €143 million.
However, the German multinational recognises to ECO that in the current scenario of rampant inflation – an issue that has emerged even more strongly in recent months, after the consortium had submitted the first application in the last quarter of last year, and defined the target and the value of the investment – “the generalised increase in costs will likely affect the project,” in terms of resource allocation.
“In practice, the effort of the business entities will have to be greater, since in the worst scenario we may be talking about this inflationary phenomenon consuming up to 30% of the financial support. Bosch is creating contingency plans to face this setback, but it is a real risk,” declares Nélson Ferreira, responsible for this project in the thermo-technology unity from Aveiro, which promises to create about 1.300 highly qualified jobs.
The managing director said that the amount provided under the RRP amounts to €56 million, with “around 10% being released after the contract is signed” with the State, to be distributed by the consortium partners. The agreement was signed on July 23 at a session at the Electricity Museum in Lisbon, attended by prime minister António Costa, and included 12 other projects in the agri-food, biotechnology or electric mobility sectors, with an overall investment of €1.3 billion, according to IAPMEI.
Organized in three pillars – improving the competitiveness of industrial processes; preparing the energy transition through electrification and hydrogen; promoting a circular economy -, this three-year project has a conclusion date scheduled for 2025. Nélson Ferreira, who is responsible for the Industry 4.0 area at Bosch Termotecnologia, anticipates that about 85 new products will result from it, both for private and commercial use.
“To respond to environmental, economic and social challenges, the partners intend with the ILLIANCE project to achieve a positive impact on the comfort, sustainability and efficiency of buildings, through the development of innovative products and solutions that include refrigeration technologies, heat pumps, automation and robotics, AGVs [self-guided vehicles], advanced hybrid combustion technologies, IoT [Internet of Things], storage systems and hybrid electric tanks, among other key technologies,” summarises the consortium.
