Information released by the European Commission on 13 May on the number of proposals received per Member State and per renewable energy category has been combined in one table. It is available here.

The distribution of projects broadly reflects the distribution of the renewable energy resource concerned. Thus concentrated solar power proposals are to be found in the Mediterranean, with over half of CSP proposals from Cyprus. Geothermal projects have been proposed in central Europe (but none is in UK, Germany or France – countries where Enhanced Geothermal Systems demonstrations are running or had previously been announced) and ocean proposals come from countries with access to the Atlantic.

Among the surprises are that Austria did not put forward a smart grids (“DRM”) project, although it was an NER300 opportunity that, along with a biofuel subcategory and an onshore wind subcategory, it specifically drew attention to in its communication with potential bidders. Ireland and Denmark did not put forward a wind project. Spain avoided PV, and so did Malta although it has the best solar resource in Europe – this might in part be due to NER300 rules that required, effectively, that the MWs of capacity be connected at a single point making a decentralised project on the space-constrained Maltese islands impossible.

Also noteworthy is the dominance of northern Europe in bioenergy projects.

Further information on the proposals is available to NER300.com clients.