The Council of the European Union approves the Renewable Energy Directive III for the promotion and development of renewable energy sources.

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On October 9, 2023, the Council of the European Union approved the Renewable Energy Directive III, which aims to promote and develop renewable energy sources. The following is a summary of the main innovations contained in the text of the Directive.

On October 9, 2023, the Council of the European Union adopted the Renewable Energy Directive III (“RED III” or the “Directive”), which requires Member States to increase the European Union’s final energy consumption share of renewable energy to at least 42.5%.

The following are the main innovations that will be introduced by the Directive:

I. Necessary zones and accelerator zones (Articles 15-ter and 15-quater of the Directive)

Under Article 15-ter of Directive RED III, within 18 months of the entry into force of the Directive, Member States must carry out a coordinated mapping in view of the diffusion of renewable energies on their territory in order to identify the national potential and the land, subsoil, marine or inland waters available for the installation of renewable energy production plants (“RES plants”). These are the so-called “necessary zones”.

In identifying the necessary zones, Member States must take into account:

  • the availability of energy from renewable sources and the renewable energy potential offered by different technologies;
  • energy demand;
  • the availability of energy infrastructure.

In addition, under Article 15-quater, within 27 months of the date of entry into force of the Directive, Member States must ensure that the competent authorities adopt one or more plans for the identification of “acceleration zones” for one or more types of renewable energy.

In particular, the said Plans must:

  • prioritize artificial and built-up surfaces, such as roofs and facades of buildings, transport infrastructure and the surrounding areas, car parks, farms, waste disposal sites, industrial sites, mines, artificial inland water bodies, lakes or artificial reservoirs and, if appropriate, urban wastewater treatment sites, as well as degraded land not suitable for agricultural activities;
  • exclude Natura 2000 sites, areas designated under national nature conservation regimes;
  • use all appropriate and proportionate tools and data sets to identify areas where RES plants do not have a significant environmental impact; and, finally,
  • establish appropriate rules for acceleration zones for renewable energy, including effective mitigation measures to be taken for the installation of RES plants and storage facilities, as well as the works necessary for the connection of such plants, in order to avoid the negative environmental impact that could occur or to reduce it.

II. Authorization procedure (Articles 16-bis, 16-ter, 16-quater, 16-quinquies of the Directive)

Directive RED III has introduced important simplifications for the authorization procedure. In particular:

  • for projects located within acceleration zones, Article 16-bis provides as follows:
    • the authorization procedure may not last more than 12 months;
    • the authorization procedure for the revision of the capacity of RES plants, for new plants with a capacity of less than 150 kW, may not last more than 6 months;
    • projects are exempt from the obligation to carry out a specific environmental impact assessment provided that such projects comply with the mitigation measures adopted under Article 15-quater, paragraph 1, letter b), of the Directive;
    • under Article 16-ter of the Directive, the authorization procedure may not last more than 2 years for projects located outside acceleration zones;
  • under Article 16-quater, the authorization procedure in the case in which the revision of the capacity of an RES plant does not result in an increase of more than 15 % may not last more than 3 months;
  • under Article 16-quinquies, the authorization procedure for the installation of solar equipment and co-located energy storage plants, including those integrated in buildings, in existing or future artificial structures, may not last more than 3 months;
  • under Article 16-quinquies paragraph 2, the authorization procedure for the installation of solar equipment with a capacity of 100 kW or less, including for renewable energy self-consumers and renewable energy communities, may not last more than 1 month.

III. Transport sector

Directive RED III provides that the quantity of renewable fuels and renewable electricity used in the transport sector shall result in:

  • a share of renewable energy in final energy consumption in the transport sector of at least 29 % by 2030; or
  • a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity of at least 14.5 % by 2030.

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