On 24 October, Chris Davies, MEP UK, and the instigator of the NER 300 mechanism, issued a tweet expressing his disappointment with the decision by UK Secretary of the State for the Treasury, George Osborne, stating that confirmation of funding for UK CCS projects could not be made in time for the EU deadline. But later the same day, Davies said that sources in DECC confirm that funding will be made available, and notified to the European Commission on Monday 29 October. The UK government has set aside one billion pounds for funding at least two demonstration projects, of which the highest on the list is Don Valley.

The Belchatow project in Eastern Poland, Europe’s largest point source of CO_2, is another contender. Polish government officials have indicated lately that no agreement has been reached on the remaining funding, despite Belchatow having received 180 million euro from the EEPR, 130 million from the Norwegian fund, and now 337 million from the NER300. But the Polish government is fiercely fighting EU climate change policy  – claiming its unreasonable burden on the Polish economy. Willingness to fund remaining costs for the Belchatow project can be seen as a sign of Poland accepting the need to adapt to climate change, a signal it hesitates to give. 

The Air Liquide plant for Hydrogen production in northern Holland, a project to demonstrate CCS on an industrial installation, is also a contender for the funding. This project depends heavily on the CCS project in the port of Rotterdam, ROAD, for infrastructure and technology cooperation. ROAD was awarded 180 million euro under the EU Emergency Programme for Energy in 2009, but is missing considerable funding before final investment decision can be made.

In addition, there is the Romanian project, Getica. In contrast to the Polish government, Bucharest has shown a keen interest starting the path towards decarbonisation of its power sector. In addition to the 337 million NER 300 funding, Romania has received 30 million euro from the Norwegian fund, and has considerable funding commitment from the EU following its accession to the EU that may be used to close the funding gap.  

Finally, should the funding for the UK projects not materialize, the French steel plant Arcelor Mittal in Florange could be a candidate, in the context of the EU project ULCOS. Once EU governments confirm the total funding package, the project consortia will have four years to build the full CCS demonstration project. The next call for funding will be announced in 2014. A total of three to five full scale CCS projects can then be built by 2018, giving the EU two years to test the facilities before 2020, according to the goals set out by the European Council in March 2007. 

Bellona has drawn up specific road maps for both Poland and Romania, that can be downloaded on our web site.