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THE European Union is set to offer €4b of funding to carbon capture and storage (CCS) and renewable energy demonstration projects.

The EU Climate Change Committee, including representatives from all 27 member states, has approved the European Commission’s proposals for allocating the funding. The EU has 300m carbon trading permits set aside for the funding of the demonstration projects. These will be sold by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to raise the money, which will amount to around €4b at current carbon trading prices. The EIB will also help to determine which projects receive funding.

The plans will see grants given to at least eight CCS demonstration projects, including pre- and post-combustion carbon capture and the oxyfuel process, and one project in each of the renewable energy sub-categories, which include various gasification technologies, algal biofuels, concentrated solar power, offshore wind and wave energy. CCS projects should have a minimum capacity of 250 MW and should between them demonstrate all currently available technologies.

If there is sufficient funding, further projects could receive funding, although the balance between CCS and renewables projects will be kept. Each member state should have at least one project, but no more than three.

The draft decision will now go before the European Parliament and the European Council, which have three months to scrutinise the plans. The Commission expects to be able to officially adopt the plants in May 2010. Following this, member states would have until the end of the year to submit potential projects to the EIB, with the Commission making the final decision by the end of 2011. The Council has requested that demonstration projects be in operation by the end of 2015.