The European Commission says it is providing additional support to member states with a new package to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy in the bloc while boosting demand for clean technologies made in Europe.
The package marks the 2nd anniversary of the REPowerEU package that was introduced in March 2022 (see EU's REPowerEU To Reduce Russia Reliance Short On Solar).
It says the updated recommendations and guidance published provide examples of good practice on faster and simpler permit-granting procedures. They also outline how to best handle site selection procedures and network connections.
The EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said, "As we approach two years since the adoption of the REPowerEU Plan, it is important to give this extra boost to homegrown clean energy sources, to allow us to replace even more Russian fossil fuels."
The new set of recommendations includes speeding up permit-granting procedures for renewable energy and related infrastructure projects in the bloc.
According to the new recommendations, member states will need to ensure that the planning, construction, and operation of new renewable energy projects and related infrastructure projects qualify for the most favorable procedure available in their planning and permit-granting procedures. Such facilities should enjoy the status of the 'highest national significance possible.'
There should be a clear and 'as short as possible' permitting deadlines for such projects to come online. Governments will need to establish binding maximum deadlines for all relevant stages of the environmental impact assessment procedure.
Community and citizen participation is also stressed upon in the new recommended guidelines to encourage self-consumption with lighter consent requirements.
Additionally, it has adopted a guidance document on designating renewables acceleration areas, defining these as locations where renewable energy deployment is not likely to have any significant environmental impact. Projects in such locations can be fast-tracked.
The guidance also outlines standard elements for renewable energy auction design in line with the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA). It stresses the use of non-price criteria to allow higher value-added projects to be rewarded while boosting Europe's net-zero technology manufacturing ecosystem. "This will ensure that the clean energy transition goes hand in hand with a strong industrial base in Europe," it says.
The commission has also updated the Union Renewables Development Platform. Member states need to use this online platform to publish basic information about their auction schedules including timing, frequency, auctioned capacity, planned budget and eligible technologies. It will be a single point of information for all renewable energy auctions planned across the bloc.
SolarPower Europe (SPE), the European solar PV lobby association, has welcomed the development saying acceleration of permitting and involvement of local communities are prerequisites to achieve REPowerEU targets.
Its CEO Walburga Hemetsberger said, "Leveraging public auctions for resilience and sustainability is a good way of rewarding companies beyond price-only. These criteria, however, need to be precise and technology specific."