Today is the second anniversary of REPowerEU, the EU’s energy policy response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. REPowerEU has speeded up the permitting of wind farms and helped raise the share of wind in Europe’s electricity mix - it’s now 19%. The EU have now launched new initiatives to keep the momentum of REPowerEU by further accelerating the build-out of renewables.
REPowerEU had three main goals: to save energy, to diversify gas imports and to ramp up the production of domestic renewables.
On this two-year anniversary of REPowerEU the EU Commission has launched new initiatives to further accelerate the deployment of wind energy:
- Guidance and recommendations on renewable auction design;
- Guidance and recommendations on renewable energy permitting;
- Guidance on the designation of renewable acceleration areas; and
- A digital platform on auction planning.
On auction design the Commission have clarified that non-price criteria should be technology-specific. That pre-qualification criteria should include cyber and data security and responsible business conduct, and that other criteria such as “innovation” should be used as award criteria. And that supply chain resilience criteria should be applied as soon as possible to strengthen Europe’s clean tech manufacturing.
On permitting the Commission have spelled out how Member States should apply the new Renewable Energy Directive to simplify rules and procedures. They’ve got to set up one-stop shops and completely digitalise their permitting procedures by November 2025. And they should have a single contact point to oversee this and tackle issues faced by those developing projects and the related infrastructure.
The Commission have also told Member States that proper indexation of auction prices and penalties for non-completion of projects are crucial for successful auctions. But the Commission have missed a trick by not telling Member States to limit negative bidding. Negative bids add costs which have to be passed on to consumers and the supply chain.
The new Renewables Development Platform will be a useful digital tool where industry and governments can see exactly what auctions are happening across Europe - where, when and for what volumes.
Source: Wind Europe
