At their last meeting under the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the energy ministers of the EU Member States agreed on two legislative proposals aimed at boosting the deployment of renewable energy projects by speeding up the procedures for granting the necessary permits, on Monday 19 December.
The first text is a proposal for a directive amending existing legislation in the field of energy, namely the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). It was presented on 18 May 2022, as part of the European Commission’s plan to move the EU away from dependence on Russian fuels (‘REPowerEU’ -see EUROPE 12955/4).
According to the agreement between the ministers (‘general approach’), Member States will designate specific ‘renewable go-to areas’ particularly suitable for hosting renewable energy installations within 30 months of the entry into force of the directive. While the Commission proposed to automatically exclude biomass combustion plants from this definition, the agreement leaves this possibility to the Member States. They may also exclude hydroelectric plants.
Faster permit-granting processes
Depending on whether or not a renewable energy project is located in a ‘renewable go-to-area’, it will benefit from a more or less accelerated permit-granting process.
In the areas in question, it should not exceed 1 year for renewable energy projects and 2 years for offshore projects (with a possible extension of up to 6 months in duly justified extraordinary circumstances).
For the repowering of existing plants and for new installations with an electrical capacity of less than 150 kW, co-located energy storage facilities as well as their grid connection, the deadline is shortened to 6 months, or to 1 year if it concerns offshore wind energy projects (with a possible extension of up to 3 months).
Outside of these areas, permit-granting processes should not exceed 2 years, and 3 years for offshore renewable energy projects (with a possible extension of up to 6 months).
For the repowering of plants, small installations (less than 150 kW), co-located energy storage facilities as well as their grid connection, the processes should not take longer than 1 year, and 2 years if they concern offshore wind energy projects (with a possible extension of up to 6 months).
For solar equipment, the permit-granting process will be limited to 3 months.
Member States also agreed that the screening or assessment of the environmental impacts for grid reinforcements should be limited to potential impacts due to changes in the grid infrastructure, in order to facilitate the integration of renewable energy into the distribution and transmission grids.
Renewable go-to-areas would also limit the grounds for legal objection to new installations, as these would be presumed to be in the overriding public interest.
Target of 40% renewable energy share
The general approach also includes raising the EU’s target for the share of renewable energy in the energy mix to 40% by 2030, which is 5% lower than the position of the Commission and of the Parliament.
Following their meeting, eight Member States (Luxembourg, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Spain) issued a joint statement calling for a higher level of ambition in the upcoming negotiations with the Parliament (‘trilogues’).
The latter had adopted its position on 14 December (see EUROPE 13084/9).
Lightning procedures for some projects
In addition, the ministers approved a second text presented by the Commission a few months after ‘REPowerEU’.
This is a proposal for a temporary EU Council Regulation (Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) to urgently accelerate the permitting procedures for solar equipment and heat pumps in order to contribute to the EU’s efforts to tackle the energy crisis.
While the content of the text was normally already fixed (see EUROPE 13071/2), the ministers finally reopened it in order to introduce an amendment requested by Germany (in Article 5a) to ensure its support for the gas price cap mechanism, which was debated the same day (see EUROPE 13087/1).
Before entering into force, the regulation still needs to be formally adopted by the EU Council, by written procedure, in the coming days.
See the declaration of the eight Member States: https://aeur.eu/f/4qu
See the emergency regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/4qv (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)