On Thursday 21 October, the European Commission opened a public consultation on the adoption of a delegated act laying down the criteria for the selection of cross-border renewable energy projects under the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF).
Established by EU Regulation 1316/2013, the CEF is an EU funding instrument whose initial objective is to develop and modernise trans-European networks in the transport, energy and digital sectors.
Following the revision of the text, the new regulation in force (2021/1153) has introduced a new category of eligible projects in the energy section of the Facility for the 2021-2027 funding period, namely ‘cross-border renewable energy projects’.
The delegated act submitted for consultation thus aims to establish the specific selection criteria and the details of the selection process for these projects.
According to the draft version of the text, the following would be eligible: - production technologies based on one of the renewable energy sources listed in Directive 2018/2001 (wind, solar, geothermal, ambient, tidal, wave and other marine energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogas); - storage facilities; - the connection of renewable energy generation to the distribution or transmission grid.
For the latter two categories, the facilities must “form an integral part of the project, effectively enable the integration of and are ancillary to a renewables generation facility”.
The consultation period is open until 18 November.
Go to the consultation:https://bit.ly/3jsJ5Wh (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)