The European Commission is currently working on a “targeted legislative proposal” to revise the provisions of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001) on licensing solar and wind energy projects, the Deputy Director General of the Commission’s Energy Department (DG ENER), Mechthild Wörsdörfer, announced on Wednesday 20 April during a debate with MEPs.
The Commission intends to facilitate and accelerate the procedures for issuing permits for renewable energy projects in EU Member States in order to support the deployment of such projects.
The proposal is expected to be unveiled as part of the next energy package, scheduled for 18 May.
Including the follow-up to the REPowerEU plan (see EUROPE 12906/4) and a new strategy for international energy commitments, the package should also include a delegated act on the principle of “additionality” applied to hydrogen, said Ms Wörsdörfer.
The idea is to ensure that the electrolysers used for renewable hydrogen production will be powered by additional renewable electricity and not by renewable electricity already produced for other uses.
Increasing ambitions
During the discussion with MEPs, Ms Wörsdörfer also indicated that the Commission is examining the possibility of the EU targeting 45% renewable energy in its gross final energy consumption by 2030 - the target supported by the majority of Parliament’s political groups (see EUROPE 12904/6) - which would represent an increase of 5 percentage points on the target initially proposed (see EUROPE 12762/8).
“We are doing a complementary analysis of our impact assessment which was from 2021 and we are working on that full speed, first of all to take account of the proposal of going from 40 to 45% but also in the context of higher energy prices”, the Deputy Director General stressed.
Reacting to this announcement, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the revision of RED II, Markus Pieper (EPP, Germany), called on the Commission not to wait until the end of the summer to finalise this analysis, as the co-legislators (Parliament and the Council of the EU) are currently working on the proposal to revise RED II.
A directive reserved for renewables
Like some MEPs such as Jens Geier (S&D, Germany) and Jutta Paulus (Greens/EFA, Germany), Ms Wörsdörfer also expressed concerns about Mr Pieper’s wish to extend the scope of RED II to low-carbon energy rather than just renewables (see EUROPE 12891/5).
This type of energy should, in her view, remain outside the scope of the directive and be dealt with under the proposal on low-carbon gases (see EUROPE 12854/11).
She added: “We also think that with the current high gas and energy prices, and the geopolitical situation, low carbon hydrogen which is produced from these energies like gas, has become less attractive because it’s more expensive”. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)