8 July 2014: The European Commission (EC) has announced the results of the second call for proposals under the New Entrants’ Reserve 300 programme (NER 300), which is funded from the sale of 300 million emission allowances. The EC awarded one billion euro funding to 19 renewable energy projects for demonstration activities. A carbon capture and storage (CCS) project was selected for the first time under the programme.

The projects are hosted by 12 EU member States, namely, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. In another first for the programme, one transboundary project will also receive funds: a geothermal plant to be built over the French-German border. The other technologies benefiting from this round of funding are ocean energy, bioenergy, concentrated solar power (CSP), smart grid, photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy.

According to EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard, the projects will leverage almost €900 million in private financing. They are also projected to boost renewable energy production in the EU by about eight terawatt hours (TWh) annually. The CCS project will capture approximately 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.

NER 300 aims to address climate change by bringing renewable energy and CCS technologies to commercial scale across the EU. The emission allowance sales that support the programme are sourced from the NER of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The European Investment Bank (EIB) will administer the funds, and selected projects will be operational within four years of the funding award. [European Commission Press Release] [European Commission Memo]