EUR4.5 billion fund aimed at boosting Europe’s clean energy production, as the continent seeks to keep ahead of competitors in climate-friendly technologies.

The European
Commission has launched the first call for proposals for the
world’s largest program of investment in low carbon and renewable
energy demonstration projects.

The initiative, known as NER300, will provide substantial
financial support for at least eight projects involving carbon
capture and storage (CCS) technologies and at least 34 projects
involving innovative renewable energy technologies.

The aim is to drive low carbon economic development in Europe,
creating new ‘green’ jobs and contributing to the achievement of
the EU’s ambitious climate change goals.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is collaborating with the
Commission in the implementation of the programme. Companies
interested in making proposals have 3 months to submit bids at
national level.

Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said: ‘The NER300
is a good example that together, EU 27 can do more than we can
individually. Through using revenues from selling of CO2
allowances, around €4.5 billion will be available for innovative
renewable energy technologies and CCS. With project sponsors and
Member States contributions this will sum up to €9 billion.”

The NER300 initiative will act as a catalyst for the
demonstration of new low carbon technologies on a commercial scale.
These and other green technologies are an increasingly important
source of future economic growth and jobs. They will also help us
meet our ambitious climate targets for 2020 and beyond

EIB President Philippe Maystadt added: ‘The EIB is fully
committed to helping European Union Member States meet their 2020
climate and energy objectives. We are therefore offering our
financial and technical expertise in support of implementation of
the NER300 initiative.”

Today’s first call for proposals signals the start of
implementation of the NER300 initiative. The initiative is so named
because it will be funded from the sale of 300 million emission
allowances in the New Entrants Reserve (NER) of the EU Emissions
Trading System (ETS).

At current market prices for emission allowances, the initiative
is worth around €4.5 billion, making it the biggest such programme
in the world.

Funding is targeted to demonstration projects involving CCS and
innovative renewable energy technologies. At least one project, and
a maximum of three, will be funded per Member State. Further
details of the types of technologies to be funded are given in the
Annex.

The programme will leverage investments of more than €9 billion
as the NER300 initiative will fund up to 50% of the construction
and operation costs of the CCS and renewables projects. Project
sponsors and Member States will provide the rest of the
funding.

NER300 funding can be combined with financing from other EU
instruments, including the Structural and Cohesion Funds and the
European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR).

Under the NER300 decision,1 the EIB is responsible for selling
the 300 million allowances and managing and disbursing the
proceeds. While details, including the starting date of the sales,
are not fixed yet, it is expected that all NER300 allowances will
be sold before the start of the third trading period of the EU ETS
in January 2013.

The EIB will also undertake detailed financial and technical due
diligence of project proposals before making recommendations in the
form of a ranking of project proposals to the Commission. The
Commission will take the final decision on which projects to
co-finance after consulting Member States.

Eight
CCS projects will receive financing:

• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>a minimum of one and maximum of three in the
  following categories: pre-combustion, post-combustion, oxy-fuel and
  industrial applications.
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Minimum of three projects using saline aquifers for
  COclass=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T11”>2class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>storage and minimum of three using depleted
  hydrocarbon reservoirs.
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Power stations taking part in CCS projects must have
  a generation capacity of at least 250 MW, and be designed to
  capture at least 85% of their COclass=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T11”>2class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>emissions.
  
  

class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>The 34 renewable energy projects to be financed
comprise the following:

• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Bio-energy 9
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Concentrated solar power 5
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Solar photovoltaic 3
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Wind 6
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Geothermal 4
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Ocean (wave and tidal power, ocean thermal energy
  conversion) 3
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Hydro-electric 1
  
  



• 
  
  class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>Distributed renewables management (Smart Grids)
  3
  
  

class=”A_Default_20_Paragraph_20_Font_a_5f__5f_t5”>class=”A__T4”>href=”http://ec.europa.eu/clima/funding/ner300/index_en.htm”
target=”_blank”>Full details on the Call for proposals are
available here