On Tuesday 25 October, the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted a draft opinion by Nils Torvalds (Renew Europe, Finnish) to exclude small hydroelectric power plants from future “areas suitable for renewable energy deployment”.
Proposed in May by the European Commission as part of the REPowerEU plan (see EUROPE 12955/4, 12949/2), this concept aims to stimulate the deployment of renewable energy by defining renewable go-to areas where permits are issued more quickly, and procedures simplified.
Like the Commission, the ENVI Committee members want to limit the permitting process for renewable energy projects in these areas to a maximum of one year by exempting them from an environmental impact assessment.
The draft opinion, approved by 42 votes to 10 against and 27 abstentions, states that these areas should be reserved for renewable energy projects, including renewable hydrogen, but excluding biomass combustion plants and hydroelectric plants with a maximum installed capacity of 10 MW.
While MEPs retained the essence of the Commission’s proposal, they added a provision requiring the Member States to ensure simplified authorisation procedures for rooftop solar installations of less than 50 kW. In addition to removing building permit requirements, the Member States will need to establish a roadmap to remove other barriers and promote the accelerated deployment of solar energy.
Although the substantive committee responsible for this issue is the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), the ENVI Committee has exclusive competence on the definition of “areas suitable for renewable energy deployment”. According to our information, the vote on the ITRE Committee’s draft report will take place on 14 November. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)