Brussels, 15 July – Thirty-three projects were submitted for NER300 second round funding, the DG Climate Action has announced. Of these thirty-three projects, thirty-two are renewable energy based and only one is a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project; the White Rose project in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Brussels, 15 July – Thirty-three projects were submitted for NER300 second round funding, the DG Climate Action has announced. Of these thirty-three projects, thirty-two are renewable energy based and only one is a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project; the White Rose project in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
NER300 is the EU’s scheme for supporting low-carbon technologies. NER300 was intended to fund eight CCS projects in total, however, none have been funded so far. Ten applications for funding were put forward in the first round, but none went forward after Member States were reluctant to co-finance their applications, as required by NER300 funding rules.
Member States’ seeming lack of interest in supporting CCS shows the risky nature of the technology which lacks a long-term business case and which is still an underdeveloped and unproven climate change solution.
It is not clear yet how much money will be available in the second round because sale of the 100 million emissions allowances that will fund the scheme have not yet been scheduled. About €430m would be raised at current carbon prices. However, €288 million is left over from the last NER300 round, after CCS projects fell through.
Under the scheme’s rules, each country should receive funding for only three projects. Germany, which had three successful renewables projects in the first round, has not submitted any more proposals. Sweden also received funding for three projects, but has submitted a further two applications. The highest number of second-round submissions were from Cyprus and France, which both put forward four renewables projects.
The final decision on funding will be made by September 2014.