The European Investment Bank confirmed the expected start date for sales under the second phase of the NER 300 Initiative. Sales will resume in mid-November and will, as previously, be carried out in a manner to minimise any impact on the market. The NER 300 scheme is one of the largest funding programmes for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects and innovative renewable energy technologies.
The sale of the remaining 100 million EU Allowances is envisaged to take place over a five month period, depending on liquidity, with an expected average sales volume of 20 million EU Allowances per month.
The European Investment Bank started to sell the first tranche of the NER 300 allowances on 5 December 2011 and this phase was completed by 28 September 2012. Under the first tranche more than EUR 1.5 billion was raised available for projects of which EUR 1.2 billion was awarded to a total of 23 projects. The successful projects receiving funding under the first round were announced in December 2012.
All of the remaining 100 million EU Allowances will be sold as futures on the two exchanges used for the first round. These are London based ICE Futures Europe and the European Energy Exchange EEX in Leipzig. All remaining EU Allowances will be placed on the two exchanges and no dedicated NER300 auctions are anticipated on either exchange.
Sales carried out under the second round will be completed before the award decisions for the 2nd call for NER 300 projects, which is expected to take place in mid-2014. This will allow alignment of NER300 sales with the 2nd call for proposal.
Awards will be made from funds remaining from the first tranche and additional funds raised through the sale of the remaining 100 million EU Allowances.
The European Investment Bank publishes monthly reports detailing the sales on EU carbon allowances under the NER300 initiative after each calendar month. The next report covering November sales will be published on 11 December.
The European Investment Bank supports the NER300 Initiative as an agent of the European Commission fulfilling two separate roles. Firstly, appraising projects that have been submitted by member states and are seeking funding from the programme and secondly through monetisation of allowances.