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EU Opens Bidding for $6 Billion in CO2-Capture, Renewable Aid
2010-11-09 05:52:08.20 GMT
By Ewa Krukowska and Jonathan Stearns
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union started a contest
for the first portion of about 4.3 billion euros ($6 billion) in
subsidies to store carbon dioxide underground and promote
renewable energy as part of the fight against global warming.
The EU invited bids for "clean coal" and renewable aid
that will come from the planned sale of as many as 300 million
allowances to emit carbon dioxide under Europe's cap-and-trade
program. Today's announcement covers 200 million of the CO2
permits, which will come from a reserve set up for the post-2012
phase of the EU emissions-trading system.
The European Investment Bank, the 27-nation EU's lending
arm, will sell the allowances to generate revenue for the
winning carbon-capture and renewable-energy projects. The EU
trading system imposes CO2 quotas on around 12,000 power plants
and factories, forcing those that exceed their limits to buy
extra permits and allowing businesses that emit less to sell
their surplus.
"Notice is hereby given of the launch of the first call
for proposals," the European Commission, the EU's executive arm
in Brussels, said in the Official Journal.
The planned EU subsidies are on top of aid approved last
year to develop technologies for carbon capture and storage at
coal-fired power plants and for renewable energy. In 2009, under
a 5 billion-euro economic-stimulus package from the EU budget,
the bloc earmarked 1 billion euros for carbon-capture projects
by utilities including Vattenfall AB, Endesa SA and Enel SpA and
565 million euros for offshore wind power initiatives.
The EU emissions-trading program, the world's biggest
greenhouse-gas market, is a cornerstone of European efforts to
tackle the heat waves, storms and floods tied to climate change.
The system started in 2005 with a three-year trading period, is
now in a second phase that ends in 2012 and will enter a third
stage running from 2013 through 2020.
The overall supply of allowances over the periods is
diminishing, and the EU is moving toward the general auctioning
of permits now granted largely for free to fill the CO2 quotas.
EU carbon allowances for 2010 traded at 14.24 euros a metric ton
yesterday in London.
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news: NI ENVMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy stories: ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page: EPWR <GO>
Top energy stories: TOP NRG <GO>
--Editors: Jones Hayden, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at +32-2-285-4300 or
jstearns2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net;
James Hertling at +33-1-5365-5075 or
jhertling@bloomberg.net
