5.4.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 125/405 Wednesday 14 September 2022
(8a)
The conditions considered necessary for harnessing the potential of renewable energy in European seas and oceans, including those around the islands and outermost regions are varying.
Therefore, the Union undertakes to establish alternative technologies capable of not impacting the marine environment adversely for these areas of particular interest.
(8b)
The geographical diversity and alternative uses of the marine environment have to be taken into account in order for the renewable energy potential of all Europe's seas and oceans to be harnessed, and this calls for a far broader set of technological solutions.
These solutions include floating offshore wind and solar farms, energy from waves, currents and tides, the differential in thermal or saline gradients, marine cooling, heating and geothermal energy and marine biomass (algae).
(8c)
The installation of renewable energy projects on rural land and on agricultural land in general should be governed by the principles of proportionality, complementarity and compensation.
Member States should ensure the orderly deployment of renewable projects in order to avoid the loss of agricultural land, and encourage the development and use of appropriate technologies that render renewable energy production compatible with agricultural and livestock production.
(9)
The market for renewable power purchase agreements is rapidly growing and provides a complementary route to the market of renewable power generation in addition to support schemes by Member States or to selling directly on the wholesale electricity market.
At the same time, these agreements provide the producer with the security of a certain income, whilst the user can benefit from a stable electricity price.
The market for renewable power purchase agreements is still limited to a small number of Member States and large companies, with significant administrative, technical and financial barriers remaining in large parts of the Union’s market.
Besides renewable power purchase agreements, the Commission shall assess barriers to the roll-out of renewable heating and cooling purchase agreements, which will play an increasing role in reaching the EU's climate and renewables targets.
The existing measures in Article 15 to encourage the uptake of renewable power purchase agreements should therefore be strengthened further, by exploring the use of credit guarantees to reduce these agreements’ financial risks, taking into account that these guarantees, where public, should not crowd out private financing.
(10)
Overly complex and excessively long administrative procedures constitute a major barrier for the deployment of renewable energy.
Further streamlining of administrative and permitting procedures is needed to ease the administrative burden for both renewable energy projects and the related grid infrastructure projects.
Within one year after the entry into force of this Directive, the Commission should revise guidelines on permit granting to shorten and simplify processes for new, repowering and the upgrade of renewable projects.
Key performance indicators should be developed in the context of these guidelines.
(10a) Local and regional authorities are key actors when it comes to bringing Europe closer to achieving its energy and
climate objectives.
Energy production at the local level is crucial to foster renewable energy production, reduce external energy dependence and decrease energy poverty rates.
(11)
Buildings have a large untapped potential to contribute effectively to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the Union.
The decarbonisation of heating and cooling in this sector through an increased share in production and use of renewable energy, particularly in the local context, will be needed to meet the ambition set in the European Climate Law to achieve the Union objective of climate neutrality.
However, progress on the use of renewables for heating and cooling has been stagnant in the last decade, largely relying on increased use of biomass.
Without the establishment of indicative targets to increase the production and use of renewable energy in buildings, there will be no ability to track progress and identify bottlenecks in the uptake of renewables.
It should be possible for Member States to count waste heat and cold towards the indicative target for renewable energy in buildings, up to a limit of 20 %, with an upper limit of 54 %.
Furthermore, the creation of targets will provide a long-term signal to investors, including for the period immediately after 2030.
This will complement obligations related to energy