The European Commission will allow a range of advanced renewable energy technologies to compete for funding that had originally been proposed for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) pilot plants, a new document shows.

The funding, worth about 4 billion euros at today's carbon price, will come from the new entrants reserve of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme.

All projects must be operational by the end of 2015 for the first tranche of funding, worth around 3 billion euros, and by the end of 2017 for the second tranche.

Below is a summary of the eligibility criteria.

CCS PROJECTS

Power generation using pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel technology (250 megawatt plants, capture rate over 85 percent).

Industrial CCS at 85 percent capture rates for refineries, cement plants and steel and aluminum production.

BIOENERGY

Lignocellulose conversion to synthetic natural gas, synfuels or ethanol and higher alcohols.

Lignocellulose conversion to pyrolysis based energy carriers.

Transport biofuels from micro-organisms such as algae and bacteria.

CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER

Parabolic trough or fresnel system using molten salts as heat transfer fluid (5-30 megawatt installations).

Tower system using superheated steam cycle (50 megawatts).

Tower system using pressurized air up to 1000 degrees Celsius (30 megawatts).

PHOTOVOLTAICS

Large concentrator photovoltaics (20 megawatts).

Large scale (40 megawatts) demonstration plants for copper indium gallium selenide and for Si-thin-film technologies.

GEOTHERMAL

Geothermal systems (5 megawatt) for deep limestone, deep compact sedimentary rocks, compressional stress fields and tensional stress fields.

WIND

Offshore wind turbines of 8, 10 and 20 megawatts.

Floating offshore wind turbines.

Onshore wind turbines for cold conditions.

OCEAN POWER

Oscillating Water Columns of 2-5 megawatts for coastal application and 5-10 megawatts for offshore application.

Wind turbine-style tidal energy devices of 5-20 megawatts.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison)

Renewable energy