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Yesterday, the European Commission proposed immediate measures in the form of a Council Regulation to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources. The proposal complements previous EU emergency measures to tackle the high energy prices. It will directly enter into force following a Council decision (presumably at the end of November) and apply temporarily for one year with the option to be extended.
The Commission thus follows a call made by the European Council at the end of October. The German Federal Government had vigorously advocated such an emergency regulation. The EU Member States will be discussing the proposal in Brussels tomorrow.
Minister Habeck said: "I am delighted that the Commission has followed our call in the European Council and submitted essential immediate measures to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy today. The regulation is an important key in the energy crisis so that we can now quickly become independent of Russian gas and at the same time attain our climate targets. The measures help to considerably speed up what are currently slow and lengthy authorisation procedures for example for wind farms, PV installations on buildings and heat pumps. Barriers to development will thus be removed. It is, however, also important that the repowering of existing renewable energy plants and of the related grid infrastructure will be facilitated and simplified. All of this provides a strong boost on our way out of the crisis."
These are the key elements of the Commission proposal:
Overriding public interest of renewable energy plants and the related grid infrastructure: planning and permitting procedures can benefit with immediate effect from a simplified assessment for specific derogations foreseen e.g. in EU environmental legislation.
Solar energy: faster permit-granting procedures would accelerate the pace of the installation of solar equipment on "artificial structures" such as buildings. The Commission proposes a maximum deadline of one month for the permitting process for solar energy equipment and the related storage and grid connections. In addition, the installations would be exempted from the need to carry out certain environmental assessments. Furthermore, the concept of "positive administrative silence", i.e. automatic permit after the expiry of a certain deadline, would apply to small-scale installations.
Repowering renewable power plants and grid connections: streamlining of the permit-granting process by including all the relevant environmental assessments in the new maximum deadline of six months. Environmental assessments would be limited to assessing the potential impacts resulting from the change or extension compared to the original project. Furthermore, the proposal introduces a simplified procedure for grid connections in cases where the repowering does not exceed a 15% increase in total capacity compared to the original project.
Heat pumps: permit-granting procedures would be accelerated by the introduction of a three-month maximum deadline and a simplified procedure for grid connections of smaller heat pumps.
