The European Commission has agreed to postpone the deadlines for final investment decisions and commissioning of renewable energy projects and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects under the NER 300 programme. The projects were due to make their final investment decision (FID) by the end of 2014 and to be operational by the end of 2016; the deadlines will now be postponed to 2018 for FID and to 2020 for commissioning.
In July 2014, €1bn had been awarded to 19 innovative renewable energy projects and the first CCS projects in 12 EU Member States (Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). Projects under the two NER300 calls will collectively increase the annual EU renewable energy production by some 18 TWh. Adding the emissions captured by the CCS project, the amount of avoided CO2 corresponds to taking more than three million cars off the roads in the EU.