The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has adopted today five individual decisions in favour of wind energy power projects in Norway. The state aid element originates from the public support granted to the projects through the national Energy Fund Scheme, managed by Enova. The latter has been first approved by ESA for a period running from 2006 to 2010. Today, the Energy Fund Scheme got also a prolongation period of one year until end of 2011, date of the entry into function of the green certificates scheme (see previous post). The legality of the aids has been assessed on the background of the State Aid Guidelines for Environmental Protection.
The beneficiaries are: Kvalheim Kraft DA (8 turbines, NOK 92.8 mill.); Jæren Energi AS (32 turbines, NOK 511 mill.); Nordkraft Vind AS (11 turbines, NOK 200.1 mill.); Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk Energi AS (16 turbines, NOK 228 mill.); Norsk Miljø Energi Sør AS (31 turbines, NOK 388 mill.)
In the press release, the Authority reports that: 'In all five cases the Authority has found that the positive effect of increasing renewable energy production outweighs the limited effect of the aid on competition. The aid is proportional as it is limited to the aid necessary to trigger investments in the respective wind power projects. The aid also provides an incentive effect since in all cases the projects would not be commercially viable without the aid. Finally, the market power of the aid recipients are in all cases less than 1% and hence the structure of the market for elctricity production is unlikely to be altered by the grant of the aid.'
The formulation provided in the press release is standard and needs to refer to the full text of the decision once it will be made available.
References: press release, ESA, 15.12.2010.
Comments