Irish NER300 Projects

May 2011 - Two project proposals have been submitted to the NER300 scheme from Ireland. These are:

1.   BIOh category – Derryclure Energy Centre - Glanpower Ltd.

2.   OCNa category – WestWave Wave Project - ESBi

The due diligence process is underway by the EIB.

Feb 2011 - A procedure for the evaluation of project proposals has been published. Download a copy of this procedure in PDF format here. The evaluations will take place prior to the 9th May deadline. Successful applicants will be forwarded to the EIB.

The EU commission has put aside 300 million carbon credits (current market value approx €14 per credit equals a total budget of €4.4 Billion) to fund a number of large scale renewable energy demonstration projects. The aim is to attract investment in technologies that are proven, but have not yet been implemented at full scale.

Call for proposals is now closed.

Deadline for submission of applications to Member States is 9th February 2011.

The fund will be administered by DG Climate. More information and application documentation is available at the link below:

OFFICIAL EU LINK

Details and useful links are shown below.

For queries contact NER300@seai.ie

Note on Reference Plants:

In the case of Electricity generating plants, a CCGT plant is the reference,

In the case of BioEnergy, the commission guidance in relation to the use of Fuel prices, will be applicable to Ireland.

For queries in relation to reference plants please contact NER300@seai.ie

NER 300 Decision on demonstration support for CCS and innovative renewables

The NER 300 is 300 million EU ETS allowances set aside for supporting 8 CCS and 34 renewable energy projects in the EU. A greater or lesser number of projects may be funded depending on the cost of the proposals.

The European Commission will launch 2 calls for proposals. The 1st call will be in Q3 2010 for project selection at end 2011 (200m allowances) and the 2nd call in 2012 for project selection at end 2013 (100m allowances.) Member States will be asked to assess whether projects meet the eligibility criteria in the Decision and provide a shortlist of projects that they support to the European Investment Bank (EIB.) The EIB will undertake financial and technical due diligence and make recommendations for selection to the European Commission, who will rank and select projects. 

The European Commission estimates the allowances may be worth between €4.5bn (at a carbon price of €15 per allowance) and €9bn (at a carbon price of €30 per allowance.) The EIB will sell the allowances.

Under the 2 calls, each Member State is entitled to at least 1 project, but not more than 3 (excluding transboundary projects.)  In terms of renewable energy projects, one in each defined technology sub-category with thresholds is eligible (see Decision below for full list.)

The Decision provides for Member States to choose which projects they put forward to the EU NER 300 selection process. Following publication of the call for proposals by the European Commission (expected Sept/Oct 2010), Member States make known their national selection process and applications are to be made to the national authority who required to assess all applications against the criteria in Article 6 and undertake a national pre-selection.

A copy of the Decision and presentations by the European Commission on NER 300 can be found below.

A presentation from the DG Research (European Commission) on the NER 300 is available here

A presentation from DG Climate Action (European Commission) on NER 300 is available here

European Commission Decision

The European Commission under its Decision is expected to issue a call in Quarter 3 2010. Following this call, the national process will be outlined.

Other Links:

http://www.ner300.com/

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Energy/Sustainable+and+Renewable+Energy+Division/NER+300.htm