The Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) has awarded SEK 231 million (around €21 million) to Project SkyKraft, a planned eSAF facility at Skellefteå Näsudden being developed by SkyNRG and Skellefteå Kraft, the agency announced on May 18, 2026. The grant runs through December 2027 and funds engineering and pre-investment work ahead of a final investment decision targeted for 2027.

eSAF, synthetic kerosene made from green hydrogen and biogenic CO2, is positioned to play a critical role in post-2030 European compliance under ReFuelEU’s e-SAF sub-mandate (1.2% in 2030, rising to 5% in 2035) but has been held back by capex intensity and offtake uncertainty. The Commission’s ReFuelEU review opens with public consultation later in 2026 and is widely expected to revisit the e-SAF compliance trajectory, as no commercial e-SAF facility has yet reached final investment decision. Eight member states have committed roughly €500 million to an e-SAF Early Movers pilot tender to push projects through FID. Against a full-scale eSAF capex that runs into the low billions, the SEK 231 million grant pays for pre-FID engineering and signals continued Swedish state appetite for non-HEFA SAF capacity; it does not by itself address the structural risk legs of long-term offtake, power-price exposure, or capex confirmation. The award is drawn from Sweden’s national industrial decarbonisation programme Industriklivet, part-financed under the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility.

At full-scale operation, the facility is projected to produce approximately 120,000 tonnes of eSAF per year, according to Energimyndigheten and the SkyKraft project page, with SkyNRG’s own press materials citing an upper envelope of up to 130,000 tonnes. The agency estimates emissions abatement at roughly 486,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, a reduction greater than 95% versus fossil jet fuel. Director General Caroline Asserup framed the award as the kind of investment Industriklivet was designed to enable, pointing to reduced dependence on fossil imports and industrial synergies. Klara Helstad, Deputy Head, Research and Innovation at Energimyndigheten, called the project an important preparatory step toward an investment decision with high potential for greenhouse gas emission reductions. SkyNRG CEO Maarten van Dijk said: “This support is a strong signal that SkyKraft represents the kind of project Europe needs to scale SAF production.” Joachim Nordin, CEO of Skellefteå Kraft, said the agency’s decision recognises SkyKraft as vital both for the aviation sector’s transition and for Sweden’s resilience. The facility would draw on Skellefteå Kraft’s fossil-free electricity, with biogenic CO2 sourced locally — likely from regional pulp or bioenergy point sources.

SkyKraft is SkyNRG’s first European project to secure a direct pre-FID state grant of this scale. It follows the company’s Dutch DSL-01 plant, which reached commercial financial close in February 2026 on a different structure of debt and equity rather than direct grant. The Dutch project is HEFA-based at around 100,000 tonnes per year; SkyKraft is eSAF, addressing a different point in the European mandate stack. The decisive moment for SkyKraft is the 2027 FID. Engineering funding is necessary but not sufficient. European eSAF projects of similar scale face the same commercial test: securing long-term offtake at prices that justify the cost basis under a regulatory trajectory that the Commission may yet reshape.