Almost 2 years after adopting the REPowerEU strategy in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Monday 13 May the European Commission adopted a series of recommendations and guidance documents to improve authorisation procedures and auctions for renewable energy.
“Today’s guidance from the Commission will help Member States to accelerate the deployment of renewables. (...) It is important to give this extra boost to homegrown clean energy sources, to allow us to replace even more Russian fossil fuels”, said the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson.
Speeding up permit-granting procedures. Firstly, the Commission has adopted an updated recommendation and guidance on speeding up permitting and planning procedures for renewable energy and related infrastructure projects.
The recommendation gives examples of best practice for speeding up and simplifying authorisation procedures, but also highlights the importance of digitalisation and the involvement of communities, human resources and skills.
To consult the recommendation and the guidance document on accelerated permit granting: https://aeur.eu/f/c64
Designation of acceleration areas. It then adopted a new guidance document on the designation of renewables acceleration areas, as defined in the revised Renewable Energy Directive (see EUROPE 13283/21).
To facilitate the successful designation of these acceleration areas, the Commission stresses the importance of the availability of digital tools for planning and mapping, as well as data on renewable energy capacity and environmental impact.
To see the guidance document on the designation of acceleration areas: https://aeur.eu/f/c6c
Resilience criteria for auctions. Next, it wants to improve the design of auctions, with a recommendation and guidelines setting out standard elements for the design of renewable energy auctions, in line with the Net-Zero Industry Act (see EUROPE 13399/13).
In this way, the Commission aims to help Member States design auctions that take into account criteria such as quality, contribution to resilience and environmental sustainability.
“The use of non-price criteria will allow higher value-added projects to be rewarded. It will help to develop Europe’s net-zero technology manufacturing ecosystem and ensure that projects are realised fully and on time”, explains a Commission press release.
To see the recommendations and the guidance document on the design of renewable energy auctions: https://aeur.eu/f/c66
Update of the renewable energy development platform. Finally, the EU’s online renewable energy development platform has been updated. This allows Member States to publish basic information about their auction schedules, such as the frequency of auctions, the capacity to be auctioned, the planned budget and the eligible technologies.
To access the platform: https://aeur.eu/f/c6b (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)