The Spanish CSPc project awarded in the First Round “PTC50-Alvarado” is the third one to hand back its award. Speaking at a conference today, Kerstin Lichtenvort revealed that Spain had formally notified the EC of its cancellation in order to be able to receive an award for a different project in the Second Round.

Including public announcements in the press, this brings the total of stillborn First Round RES projects to at least five.

Should a future NER300 have a wider scope or award more or less money than the present scheme?These are two specific questions from Part II.A of the questionnaire the public is invited to fill in in the EC’s consultation on the carbon leakage provisions of the Emissions Trading Scheme post-2020.

It may be wise to fill in questionnaire once the Second Round Award Decision has been made public (due mid-July).

Speaking at a conference today, Kerstin Lichtenvort, team leader on NER300 in DG CLIMA, said the Award Decision of the Second Call would come in mid-July. The unveiling would come at an EC press conference. The number of awarded Member States “would increase from 16 to 20”. This means that four out of following seven countries will all be awarded at least one project: Slovenia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia (and possibly Ireland depending on how the EC has counted it). 12 projects from the First Round have been resubmitted for the Second Round. 10 passed EIB Technical and Financial Due Diligence and of those 8 were confirmed by Member States.

Lichtenvort said NER300 was “essential” to the EU’s climate and energy policy. She linked the expiry of the legal basis for further NER300 awards on 31 Dec 2015 to the difficulty in announcing a third call. “The date is set by the Emissions Trading Directive. Bringing in a new NER300 before 2020 would require re-opening the Emissions Trading Directive and as we have seen in discussions on backloading, such a process is difficult.”

Delegates to the Climate Change Committee will gather in Brussels to give their opinion on a draft Award Decision and Rejection Decision sent to them by the EC on 19 May. If there is no consensus view, the Committee may ask them to proceed to a formal vote.

The Committee is scheduled to address the NER300 topic between 14:40 and 15:40. If the Decisions are endorsed, the status of projects at the moment of endorsement (awarded/rejected) will not change. The EC is however not expected to present the Decisions to the public until the end of the month. Depending on the attitude of their Member State, some Project Sponsors may come to learn the fate of their and other proposals earlier.

The EC might link the publication of the Award Decision with its mini-conference on NER300 (which focuses mainly on First Round projects, which received their awards in Dec 2012) in Brussels on 26 June.