EC awards NER300 grants to UPM and Billerud Korsnäs for biofuels projects

Under the NER300 (New Entrants’ Reserve) financing program, supporting renewable energies and low-carbon emissions technologies, on 18 December 2012 the European Commission awarded more than €1.2bn in funding to 23 innovative projects in Europe.

Pulp and paper companies receiving the funds from the EU include Helsinki-based UPM and the new Swedish packaging paper joint venture Billerud Korsnäs. Their respective demonstration projects for wood-based biodiesel in Stracel, France, and liquid biofuels in Skärblacka, Sweden, have been awarded more than €200m in total funding.

There has not yet been a final decision whether the biorefinery in Stracel will actually be built. UPM said in a press release on 18 December 2012 that its investment decision was subject to “the economic operating environment and the long-term outlook for the market price and availability of wood” as well as the European Commission’s amendments to bioifuels’ raw material related directives, adding it would make a final assessment of the construction of the facility in Stracel within the next 12-18 months.