On Wednesday, 14 December, MEPs gathered in Strasbourg narrowly adopted (304 votes in favour, 294 against, and 10 abstentions) an amendment from the EPP group that envisions including biomass combustion plants among the renewable energy projects that are eligible for fast-track permitting procedures.
This amendment modifies the European Commission’s original proposal, which defined ‘renewables go-to areas’ as areas that are particularly suitable for the installation of plants for the production of energy from renewable sources, “other than biomass combustion plants”.
MEPs acknowledged that, in these areas, the maximum time taken to approve new renewable energy plants should not exceed nine months (compared to 12 months in the European Commission’s proposal). If the competent authority does not respond before the established deadline passes, the application for approval will be considered approved.
Outside these areas, the permitting process would be limited to 18 months, rather than the two years initially proposed.
The maximum period for projects to repower existing renewable energy plants and for new installations with an electrical capacity of less than 150 kW has been set at six months.
In addition, MEPs rejected a Greens/EFA amendment aiming to exclude new hydropower plants from ‘renewables go-to areas’. The NGO WWF has denounced this decision, according to which the European Parliament is thus allowing “the greenlighting of harmful hydropower projects and their dams, with the risk of reaching a no-return point for biodiversity and the future of the people living around them”.
Simplified procedures for heat pumps and solar panels
Beyond these elements based on the European Commission’s text that was unveiled on 18 May as part of its ‘REPowerEU’ plan (see EUROPE 12955/4 and 12949/2), the European Parliament also incorporated provisions from the recent proposal for an emergency regulation aiming to introduce simplified procedures for certain types of projects and thus combat the energy crisis (see EUROPE 13060/7).
It thus wishes to limit the time needed to issue permits for the installation of solar energy equipment on buildings to one month. For small installations (less than 50 kW), a simple notification procedure is reportedly sufficient. The installation of solar equipment would moreover be exempt from the requirement to conduct an environmental impact assessment.
The procedure concerning heat pumps and grid connection projects should not exceed one month.
Exclusion of Natura 2000 sites
The European Parliament also rejected an EPP amendment envisioning the possibility, under certain conditions, to define Natura 2000 sites and nature parks and reserves as ‘renewables go-to areas’.
Direction of the interinstitutional negotiations
Following the votes on the amendments, the European Parliament adopted the draft report by Markus Pieper (EPP, German) as amended with a significant number of abstentions (407 votes in favour, 34 against, and 181 abstentions); these abstentions were primarily from Greens/EFA MEPs, as the group is fiercely opposed to including biomass in the scope of the text.
MEPs are thus ready to begin interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) with the EU Council. The Council of the EU intends to adopt its position on 19 December during the meeting of Member States’ energy ministers. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)