European Funding opportunities for solar photovoltaic projects

According to the European Commission  Directorate-General (DG) for Climate Action, the EU NER-300 funding scheme, a program for carbon capture and storage and for innovative renewable energy projects, a second call for proposal has just been announced and is now open for applications to the European Investment Bank. The program will accept applications until 3rd July 2013.

The NER-300 deals with the financing of commercial demonstration projects in two primary areas, being:

1. For the capture and geological storage of Carbon Dioxide (CO2)  – Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS), in an environmentally safe way and
2. For innovative renewable-energy technologies.

According to NER-300 2nd call for proposals documentation, published on April 3rd, the innovative renewable energy category includes various projects with sub-categories for Bioenergy, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), Photovoltaics (PV), Geothermal energy, Wind Energy, Ocean energy, Hydropower, and Distributed Renewable Management – smart grids. Looking at NER-300, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) sees several potential funding opportunities that deal with Photovoltaic projects which can be outlined under three main categories, all being for large scale photovoltaic (PV) projects:

 Funding opportunities for Photovoltaic Project categories

• Concentrator  technologyPV power plants with a nominal capacity of 20MWe [PVa] and – an AC system efficiency of at least 28%” – link to dowload  PVa

• Multy-junction Si-thin-film technology PV power plants with nominal capacity of 40 MWe [PVb] with a module area efficiency of  at least 11%, and an AC system efficiency of at least 8.5%” – link to download PVb

• CIGS-based PV power plants with nominal capacity of 40 MEe [PVc] with a module area efficiency of at least 16% and an AC system efficiency of at least 13%” – link to download PVc

The definition, herein, of module area efficiency will be the ratio of Direct Current  (DC) – over the surface of the module at Standard Test Conditions (STC),  i.e. at clear weather with temperature of 25 Deg. Celsius, irradiance of 1000 Watts / sq.meter and an air mass spectrum of 1.5.

Similarly, the definition of AC system efficiency will be the ratio of the annual quantity of Alternating electric Current (AC) that actually passes on to the power network (in Mega-watt-hrs per year – MWhrs/year) to the annual solar irradiation over the total surface area of the modules.

The applications submission deadline for eligible applicants (at member states level) is 3rd July 2013. The main deadlines of the N-300 2nd call for proposals timetable has been published as follows:

• 3 April 2013 – Publication date (PD) of 2nd cal for proposals
• (PD) + 3 months – submission of Member states proposals to the European Investment Bank (EIB)
• (PD) + 12 months (subject to applications volume) – Selection assessment
• (PD) + 17 months (subject to applications volume) – Ranking of assessed applications, and award decision