But to get technologies from pilot to commercial scale (where the ETS incentive takes over), bridging finance is sometimes needed. DG CLIMA's demonstration support initiative, the NER 300 funding programme provides substantial funding for the large-scale demonstration of low carbon energy technologies in Europe and is the world's largest programme in this area. Two award decisions have been made under the NER 300 programme. Under the first decision, a total of €1.1 billion was awarded to 20 highly innovative renewable energy demonstration projects.
In July 2014, under the second decision, €1 billion in funding was awarded to 19 pioneering projects including the first example of a large-scale carbon capture and storage project in the EU.