Fast-tracking renewable energy projects

KEY POINTS

The recommendation calls upon EU Member States to take action under a number of headings.

Faster, shorter procedures

• Ensure that renewable energy plants, grid connections and storage assets qualify for fast-track processing and are presumed to be of overriding public interest.
• Set out clear, short deadlines for all the steps required to grant permits, specifying where they can be extended and under what circumstances.
• Set out maximum deadlines for every stage of the environmental impact assessment procedure, with the permit process for solar energy equipment in buildings limited to 3 months.
• Establish time frames and rules to ensure efficient legal proceedings.
• Create a single application process.
• Allow project specification updates during the application process to facilitate innovative technologies.

Citizen and community participation

• Stimulate citizen and energy community participation in projects.
• Implement simplified permit-granting and licensing procedures for renewable energy communities.

Better coordination

• Ensure streamlined and effective coordination between the national, regional and municipal levels.
• Create a one-stop shop for granting permits, as required in Directive (EU) 2018/2001, to limit the number of authorities involved.
• Introduce rules whereby the absence of a timely response from the authorities to a particular request is deemed as acceptance, unless the response is required by EU or national legislation.

Clear and digitalised procedures

• Communicate complete and transparent information on requirements and procedural stages, including complaint procedures, at the start of the process.
• Introduce fully digital procedures and e-communication.
• Ensure information is made available centrally as part of an online manual of procedures, including templates for applications, environmental studies and data, and information on public participation and charges.

Human resources and skills

• Ensure sufficient staffing, with relevant skills and qualifications, for permit-granting bodies and environmental assessment authorities.
• Use all available EU and national funding for upskilling and reskilling, in particular at the regional and local levels.
• Consider setting up an alliance to collaborate on permit-granting and environmental assessment skills.

Better project locations

• Quickly identify suitable locations for projects, in line with national energy and climate plans and their contribution to the EU 2030 renewable energy target.
• Avoid environmentally valuable areas and prioritise degraded land not suitable for agriculture.
• Limit zones where renewable energy cannot be developed, justifying restrictions related to distance to housing and military or civil aviation zones.
• Streamline environmental impact assessment requirements as far as legally possible, reconciling renewable energy deployment and EU environmental legislation, and integrating it with other environmental assessments in a joint procedure.
• Ensure that disturbing wild birds and protected species is not an obstacle to developing projects, by requiring mitigation measures and monitoring their effect.
• Encourage early public involvement, promote the multiple use of sites and ensure transparency about where and how projects are installed.

Easier grid connection

• Implement long-term grid planning and investment taking into account future demand and the objective of climate neutrality.
• Establish simplified procedures for repowering existing renewable energy plants.
• Ensure that system operators apply a transparent and digital procedure for grid connection applications, provide information on grid capacity and optimise grid capacity by allowing for complementary technologies.
• Provide legal certainty on repurposing natural gas pipelines to hydrogen by stating the authorisations required and extending existing authorisations.

Innovation

• Encourage targeted legislative exemptions for innovative technologies, products, services or approaches.

Power purchase agreements

• Remove unjustified administrative or market barriers to corporate purchase agreements, particularly to improve uptake by small and medium-sized businesses.
• Design, schedule and implement support schemes so as to work well with corporate purchase agreements.

Monitoring, reporting and reviewing

• Set up a contact point to monitor the main bottlenecks in the permit-granting process and address the main issues.
• Report to the European Commission every 2 years as part of the integrated national energy and climate progress reports submitted under Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 (see summary).