The European Parliament adopted by 495 votes to 68, with 61 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (recast).
The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission proposal as follows:
Binding EU targets for 2030 and national targets: Member States shall collectively ensure that the share of energy from renewable sources in the EU's gross final energy consumption by 2030 is at least 32%. For the transport sector, at least 14% of energy consumption in each Member State should come from renewable sources.
The Commission shall assess that obligation, with a view to submitting, by 2023, a legislative proposal to increase it in the event of further substantial costs reductions in the production of renewable energy, where necessary to meet the Union's international commitments for decarbonisation, or where justified on the grounds of a significant decrease in energy consumption in the Union.
Member States may exempt, or distinguish between, different fuel suppliers and different energy carriers when setting the obligation on the fuel suppliers, ensuring that the varying degrees of maturity and the cost of different
The Union's objectives shall be achieved collectively by the Member States through national objectives.
Support schemes for energy from renewable sources: support schemes implemented by Member States shall provide an incentive to integrate electricity from renewable sources into the electricity market in a way that is market-based and responsive to market signals, while avoiding unnecessary market distortions and taking into account the possible costs of system integration and grid stability.
Member States may:
- exempt small installations and demonstration projects from tendering procedures;
- limit tendering procedures to certain technologies where the opening of support schemes to all producers of electricity from renewable sources would lead to insufficient results for reasons such as the long-term potential of a given technology, grid integration costs or grid stability;
- adapt financial support schemes for projects located in the outermost regions to take into account the production costs linked to their specific situation of isolation and external dependence.
Financial stability: Member States shall publish a long-term indicative schedule covering the main aspects of the expected support, without affecting the ability of Member States to decide on budget allocation in the years covered by the schedule.
This schedule shall be updated annually or as necessary to take into account recent market developments.
Duration of the permit procedure: Member States shall establish or designate one or more contact points which, at the request of the applicant, shall guide and facilitate the entire administrative procedure for the application and granting of permits.
The permit-granting process shall not exceed one year for installations with an electrical capacity of less than 150 kW. Where duly justified on the grounds of extraordinary circumstances, that one-year period may be extended by up to one year.
Member States shall establish a simple-notification procedure for grid connections whereby installations or aggregated production units of renewables self-consumers and demonstration projects, with an electrical capacity of 10.8 kW or less.
Self-suppliers of renewable energy: Member States shall ensure that citizens are entitled to produce renewable energy for their own consumption, to store it and to sell excess production without being exposed to disproportionate or discriminatory costs or charges or unjustified charges.
Member States may apply non-discriminatory and proportionate charges on self-consumers of renewable energy in relation to their self-generated renewable electricity which remains on their premises: (i) from 1 December 2026, if the overall share of self-consumption installations exceeds 8 % of a Member State's total installed electricity capacity or (ii) if the renewable electricity produced by self-consumers is produced in installations with a total installed electrical capacity exceeding 30 kW.
Member States shall also provide a favourable framework to promote the development of renewable energy communities. Household consumers and communities engaging in renewables self-consumption should maintain their rights as consumers, including the rights to have a contract with a supplier of their choice and to switch supplier.
Integration of renewable energy into heating and cooling: each Member State shall endeavour to increase the share of renewable energy for heating and cooling by an indicative 1.3 percentage points as an annual average calculated for the periods 2021-2025 and 2026-2030. This increase shall be limited to 1.1 percentage points, as an indication, for Member States where fatal recovered heat and cold is not used.
Biofuels: within the minimum share of at least 14% of transport fuels to be derived from renewable resources by 2030, the contribution of advanced biofuels as a share of final energy consumption in the transport sector shall be at least 0.2% in 2022 and at least 1% in 2025 and at least 3.5% in 2030.
According to the amended text, the share of biofuels and bioliquids, as well as of biomass fuels consumed in transport, where produced from food and feed crops, shall be no more than one percentage point higher than the share of such fuels in the final consumption of energy in the road and rail transport sectors in 2020 in that Member State, with a maximum of 7 % of final consumption of energy in the road and rail transport sectors in that Member State.
From 2019 onwards, the contribution of first-generation biofuels to EU targets is expected to decrease gradually to zero by 2030.