Considerations on COM(2022)222 - Amendment of Directives on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, on the energy performance of buildings and on energy efficiency - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2022)222 - Amendment of Directives on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, on the energy performance of buildings ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2022)222  |
| date | May 18, 2022 |
(2) Renewable energy plays a fundamental role in delivering on these objectives, given that the energy sector contributes today over 75% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the Union. By reducing those greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy also contributes to tackling environmental-related challenges such as biodiversity loss and to reducing pollution in line with the objectives of the Zero-Pollution Action Plan.
(3) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council 18 sets a binding Union target to reach a share of at least 32 % of energy from renewable sources in the Union's gross final consumption of energy by 2030. Under the Climate Target Plan 19 , the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption would need to increase to 40% by 2030 in order to achieve the Union’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target 20 . In this context, the Commission proposed in July 2021, as part of the package delivering on the European Green Deal, to double the share of renewable energy in the energy mix in 2030 compared to 2020, to reach at least 40%. The REPowerEU Communication 21 outlined a plan to make the EU independent from Russian fossil fuels well before the end of this decade. The Communication foresees front-loading of wind and solar energy, increasing the average deployment rate as well as additional renewable energy capacity by 2030 to accommodate for higher production of renewable hydrogen. It also invited the co-legislators to consider a higher or earlier target for renewable energy. In this context, it is appropriate to increase the Union renewable energy target up to 45% in order to significantly accelerate the current pace of deployment of renewable energy, thereby speeding up the phase-out of EU’s dependence by increasing the availability of affordable, secure and sustainable energy in the Union.
(4) Lengthy administrative procedures are one of the key barriers for investments in renewables and their related infrastructure. These barriers include the complexity of the applicable rules for site selection and administrative authorisations for projects, the complexity and duration of the assessment of the environmental impacts of the projects, grid connection issues, constraints on adapting technology specifications during the permit-granting procedure, or staffing issues of the permit-granting authorities or grid operators. In order to accelerate the pace of deployment of renewable energy projects it is necessary to adopt rules which would simplify and shorten permit-granting processes.
(5) The Directive (EU) 2018/2001 streamlines the requirements to simplify the administrative procedures for authorising renewable energy plants by introducing rules on the organisation and maximum duration of the administrative part of the permit-granting process for renewable energy projects, covering all relevant permits to build, repower and operate plants, and for their grid connection.
(6) A further simplification and shortening of the administrative permit-granting processes in a coordinated and harmonised manner is necessary in order to ensure that the Union reaches its ambitious climate and energy targets for 2030 and the objective of climate-neutrality by 2050, while taking into account the “do no harm” principle of the European Green Deal. The introduction of shorter and clear deadlines for decisions to be taken by the authorities competent for issuing the authorisation for the renewable energy installations on the basis of a complete application, will accelerate the deployment of renewable energy projects. It is appropriate however to make a distinction between projects in areas particularly suitable for the deployment of renewable energy projects, for which deadlines can be particularly streamlined (renewables go-to areas), and projects located outside those areas.
(7) Some of the most common issues faced by renewable energy project developers relate to procedures established at national or regional level to assess the environmental impact of the proposed projects. Therefore, it is appropriate to streamline certain environmental-related aspects of the permit-granting procedures and processes for renewable energy projects.
(8) A faster roll-out of renewable energy projects could be supported by strategic planning carried out by Member States. Member States should identify the land and sea areas necessary for the installation of plants for the production of energy from renewable sources in order to meet their national contributions towards the revised 2030 renewable energy target set out in Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001. Such areas should reflect their estimated trajectories and total planned installed capacity and should be identified by renewable energy technology set in the Member States’ updated national energy and climate plans pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999. The identification of the required land and sea areas should take into consideration the availability of the renewable energy resources and the potential offered by the different land and sea areas for renewable energy production of the different technologies, the projected energy demand overall and in the different regions of the Member State, and the availability of relevant grid infrastructure, storage and other flexibility tools bearing in mind the capacity needed to cater for the increasing amount of renewable energy.
(9) Member States should designate as renewables go-to areas those areas that are particularly suitable to develop renewable energy projects, differentiating between technologies, and where the deployment of the specific type of renewable energy sources is not expected to have a significant environmental impact. In the designation of renewables go-to areas, Member States should avoid protected areas to the extent possible and consider restoration plans. Member States may designate renewable go-to areas specific for one or more types of renewable energy plants and should indicate the type or types of renewable energy that are suitable to be produced in each renewable go-to area.
(10) Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 22 establishes environmental assessments as an important tool for integrating environmental considerations into the preparation and adoption of plans and programmes. In order to designate renewables go-to areas, Member States should prepare a plan or plans encompassing the identification of areas and the applicable rules and mitigation measures for projects located in each go-to area. Member States may prepare one single plan for all renewable go-to areas and technologies, or technology-specific plans identifying one or more renewable go-to areas. Each plan should be subject to an environmental assessment carried out in accordance with the conditions set out in Directive 2001/42/EC in order to assess the impacts of each renewable technology on the relevant areas designated in such plan. Carrying out an environmental assessment in accordance with Directive 2001/42/EC for this purpose would allow Member States to have a more integrated and efficient approach to planning and to take environmental considerations into account at an early phase of the planning process at a strategic level. This would contribute to ramping up the deployment of different renewable energy sources in a faster and streamlined manner while minimising the negative environmental impacts from these projects.
(11) Following the adoption of the plan or plans designating renewables go-to areas, Member States should monitor the significant environmental effects of the implementation of plans and programmes in order, inter alia, to identify at an early stage unforeseen adverse effects, and to be able to undertake appropriate remedial action, in accordance with Directive 2001/42/EC.
(12) The provisions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters 23 (‘the Aarhus Convention’)¨ regarding access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters, in particular the provisions relating to public participation and to access to justice remain applicable, where relevant.
(13) The designation of renewables go-to areas should aim to ensure that renewable energy production from these areas, together with existing renewable energy plants, future renewable energy plants outside of such areas and cooperation mechanisms, will be sufficient to achieve Member States’ contribution to the Union renewable energy target set out in Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001.
(14) In the designated renewables go-to areas, renewable energy projects that comply with the rules and measures identified in the plan or plans prepared by Member States, should benefit from a presumption of not having significant effects on the environment. Therefore, there should be an exemption from the need to carry out a specific environmental impact assessment at project level in the sense of Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 24 , with the exception of projects which are likely to have significant effects on the environment in another Member State or where a Member State likely to be significantly affected so requests. The obligations under the UNECE Espoo Convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context of 25 February 1991 should remain applicable for Member States where the project is likely to cause a significant transboundary impact in a third country.
(15) The designation of renewables go-to areas should allow renewable energy plants, their grid connection as well as co-located energy storage facilities located in these areas to benefit from predictability and streamlined administrative procedures. In particular, projects located in renewable go-to areas should benefit from accelerated administrative procedures, including a tacit agreement in case of a lack of response by the competent authority on an administrative step by the established deadline, unless the specific project is subject to an environmental impact assessment. These projects should also benefit from clearly delimited deadlines and legal certainty as regards the expected outcome of the procedure. Following the application for projects in a renewables go-to area, Member States should carry out a fast screening of such applications with the aim to identify if any of such projects is highly likely to give rise to significant unforeseen adverse effects in view of the environmental sensitivity of the geographic area where they are located that were not identified during the environmental assessment of the plan or plans designating renewables go-to areas carried out in accordance with Directive 2001/42/EC. All projects located in renewables go-to areas should be deemed approved at the end of such screening process. Only if Member States have clear evidence to consider that a specific project is highly likely to give rise to such significant unforeseen adverse effects, Member States should, after motivating such decision, subject such project to an environmental assessment in accordance with Directive 2011/92/EC and, where relevant, Directive 92/43/EEC 25 . Given the need to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources, such assessment should be carried out within six months.
(16) In view of the need to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources, the identification of renewables go-to areas should not prevent the ongoing and future installation of renewable energy projects in all areas available for renewable energy deployment. Such projects should remain subject to the obligation to carry out a dedicated environmental impact assessment in accordance with Directive 2001/92/EU and should be subject to the procedures foreseen for renewable energy projects located outside go-to areas. To speed up permitting at the scale necessary for the achievement of the renewable energy target set out in Directive (EU) 2018/2001, also the procedures applicable to projects outside of go-to areas should be simplified and streamlined with the introduction of clear maximum deadlines for all steps of the procedure, including dedicated environmental assessments per project.
(17) Multiple use of space for renewable energy production and other land and sea uses (such as food production or nature protection or restoration) alleviates land and sea use constraints. In this context, spatial planning is an important tool to identify and steer synergies for land and sea use at an early stage. Member States should explore, enable and favour the multiple uses of the areas identified as a result of the spatial planning measures adopted.
(18) The construction and operation of renewable energy plants may result in the occasional killing or disturbance of birds and other protected species under Directive 92/43/EEC or Directive 2009/147/EC 26 . However, such killing or disturbance would not be considered deliberate in the sense of these Directives if a project has adopted, during its construction and operation, appropriate mitigation measures to avoid collisions or prevent disturbance, and if it carries out a proper monitoring to assess the effectiveness of such measures and, in the light of the information gathered, takes further measures as required to ensure no significant negative impact on the population of the species concerned.
(19) In addition to installing new renewable energy plants, repowering existing renewable energy plants has a significant potential to contribute to the achievement of the renewable energy targets. Since, usually, the existing renewable energy plants have been installed in sites with significant renewable energy resource potential, repowering can ensure the continued use of these sites while reducing the need to designate new sites for renewable energy projects. Repowering includes further benefits such as the existing grid connection, a likely higher degree of public acceptance and knowledge of environmental impacts. The repowering of renewable energy projects entails changes to or the extension of existing projects to different degrees. The permit-granting process, including environmental assessments and screening, for the repowering of renewable energy projects should be limited to the potential impacts resulting from the change or extension compared to the original project.
(20) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 introduces streamlined permit-granting procedures for repowering. In order to respond to the increasing need for the repowering of existing renewable energy plants and to make full use of the advantages it offers, it is appropriate to establish an even shorter procedure for the repowering of renewable energy plants located in go-to areas, including a shorter screening procedure. For the repowering of existing renewable energy plants located outside go-to areas, Member States should ensure a simplified and swift permit-granting process which should not exceed one year, while taking into account the “do no harm” principle of the European Green Deal.
(21) The installation of solar energy equipment, together with related co-located storage and grid connection, in existing or future structures created for purposes different than solar energy production with the exclusion of artificial water surfaces, such as rooftops, parking areas, roads and railways, do not typically raise concerns related to competing uses of space or environmental impact. These installations therefore may benefit from shorter permit-granting procedures.
(22) Renewable energy sources are crucial to fight climate change, reduce energy prices, decrease the Union’s dependence on fossil fuels and ensure the Union’s security of supply. For the purposes of the relevant Union environmental legislation, in the necessary case-by-case assessments to ascertain whether a plant for the production of energy from renewable sources, its connection to the grid, the related grid itself or storage assets is of overriding public interest in a particular case, Member States should presume these plants and their related infrastructure as being of overriding public interest and serving public health and safety, except where there is clear evidence that these projects have major adverse effects on the environment which cannot be mitigated or compensated. Considering such plants as being of overriding public interest and serving public health and safety would allow such projects to benefit from a simplified assessment.
(23) In order to ensure a smooth and effective implementation of the provisions laid down in this Directive, the Commission supports Member States through the Technical Support Instrument 27 providing tailor-made technical expertise to design and implement reforms, including those increasing the use of energy from renewable sources, fostering better energy system integration, identifying specific areas particularly suitable for the installation of plants for the production of renewable energy, and streamlining the framework for authorisation and permit-granting processes for renewable energy plants. The technical support, for example, involves strengthening of administrative capacity, harmonising the legislative frameworks, and sharing of relevant best practices.
(24) The Directive (EU) 2018/2001 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(25) There is an urgent need to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels in buildings and to accelerate efforts to decarbonise and electrify their energy consumption. In order to enable the cost-effective installation of solar technologies at a later stage, all new buildings should be “solar ready”, that is, designed to optimise the solar generation potential on the basis of the site’s solar irradiance, enabling the fruitful installation of solar technologies without costly structural interventions. In addition, Member States should ensure the deployment of suitable solar installations on new buildings, both residential and non-residential, and on existing non-residential buildings. Large scale deployment of solar energy on buildings would make a major contribution to shielding more effectively consumers from increasing and volatile prices of fossil fuels, reduce the exposure of vulnerable citizens to high energy costs and result in wider environmental, economic and social benefits. In order to efficiently exploit the potential of solar installations on buildings, Member States should define criteria for the implementation of, and possible exemptions from, the deployment of solar installations on buildings in line with the assessed technical and economic potential of the solar energy installations and the characteristics of the buildings covered by this obligation.
(26) The Directive 2010/31/EU should therefore be amended accordingly.
(27) Energy efficiency is a key area of action, without which independence from fossil fuels and energy imports from Russia and the full decarbonisation of the Union´s economy cannot be achieved. The need to capture the cost-effective energy saving opportunities has led to the Union´s current energy efficiency policy. In December 2018, a new 2030 Union headline energy efficiency target of at least 32,5% (compared to projected energy use in 2030) was included as part of the 'Clean Energy for All Europeans package’. To increase independence and resilience and to achieve the increased climate ambition, energy efficiency improvements should be further raised to at least 39% for final energy and 41.5% for primary energy, based on the 2007 Reference Scenario projections for 2030.
(28) However, the change in the Eurostat energy balance calculation methodology and improvements in subsequent modelling projections call for a change of the baseline. Thus, using the same approach to define the target, that is to say comparing it to the future baseline projections, the ambition of the Union’s 2030 energy efficiency target should be set compared to the 2020 Reference Scenario projections for 2030 reflecting national contributions from the NECPs. With that updated baseline, the Union will need to further increase its energy efficiency ambition by at least 13% in 2030 compared to the level of efforts under the 2020 Reference Scenario. This new way of expressing the level of ambition for the Union’s targets does not affect the actual level of efforts needed.
(29) The Directive 2012/27/EU should therefore be amended accordingly.
(30) Since the objective of this Directive, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy dependency and energy prices, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reasons, of the scale of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiary as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(31) In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents 28 , Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified, in particular following the judgment of the European Court of Justice in Case Commission vs Belgium 29 (case C-543/17).