by Teresa Parejo Navajas, Professor of Law, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain).
In December 2012 the European Commission awarded over €1.2 billion funding to 23 highly innovative renewable energy demonstration projects under the first call for proposals for the so-called NER300 funding program. Projects will be co-financed with revenues obtained from the sale of 200 million emission allowances from the new entrants’ reserve (NER) of the EU Emissions Trading System.
The projects cover a wide range of renewable technologies – bioenergy (including advanced biofuels), concentrated solar power, geothermal power, wind, ocean energy and distributed renewable management (smart grids).
The Spanish project (PTC50-Alvarado) has been awarded up to 70 million Euros. The concentrated solar power plant, located near Badajoz (Extremadura), will be a 50 MW central tower concentrated solar power (CSP) plant using superheated steam. A field of large tracking plain mirrors – heliostats – will serve to convert primary solar energy into electrical energy.
Once up and running, these 23 projects will collectively increase annual renewable energy production in Europe by some 10 TWh, an energy amount corresponding to the annual fuel consumption of more than a million passenger cars. More importantly, the aim is to successfully demonstrate technologies that will subsequently help scale-up production from renewable sources across the EU substantially.
The NER300 funding program is implemented by the European Commission with the collaboration of the European Investment Bank (EIB) both in the project selection, the sale of 300 million carbon allowances from the EU Emissions Trading System, and the management of revenues.
For more information on the program, click here.
