NER300: Lessons learnt in attempting to secure CCS projects in Europe

Abstract

CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) has become an integral and priority part of European energy policy over the last years. However, CCS is not a feasible climate change mitigation option yet. In order to bring the technology towards reduced costs and to make CCS an economically viable mitigation option, the European Commission created a comprehensive demonstration programme aimed to encourage development and accelerate commercial CCS deployment. The goal was to have up to 12 CCS demonstration projects by 2015.This is far away from reality today. Despite the tremendous effort, the two major European CCS funds – the European Energy Programme for Recovery and more recently the New Entrants Reserve of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme Programme (NER300) – are struggling to secure a single demonstration project to move forward.Originally intended as a CCS instrument, the NER300 first round published on November 2010 has been followed with great expectation by CCS community. However, in December 2012 the Commission announced that not one CCS project was awarded.This paper reviews the NER300 process, analyses the reasons for the programme's lack of success in securing CCS demonstration projects, and distills the lessons learnt.