EU will not harmonise renewable support, seeks to promote decentralisation

The revised Renewable Energy Directive will not introduce common rules for the system of allocating support for renewables. Decentralised projects by residents and municipalities should receive greater support. The Euractiv.com online portal reported this.

According to Marie Donnelly, head of the renewables, R&D and energy efficiency unit at DG Energy, the new version of the directive will not include harmonisation of the support allocation system, even though such a move might be expected.

„In a single market, one might expect a single support system, but I do not think the time is right for that yet.“
Marie Donnelly, DG Energy

French President Hollande also called for some harmonisation of support, seeking to ensure that certain states do not change support conditions while it is being allocated.

Meanwhile, the European Commission strongly promoted auctions in its guidelines for approving support, which were a condition for approving support granted to new installations from January 2017.

However, the differences between countries in which support is granted under the European Renewable Energy Directive are too great, and introducing a single support system would be complicated, Marie Donnelly added. According to Euractiv.com, renewable energy industry organisations agree.

The new Renewable Energy Directive is expected around the turn of this year and next and should, among other things, further promote decentralisation and the development of renewable energy sources. Residents should be encouraged to generate their own electricity, including storing and selling it.

„One of our aims is to provide greater support to individual residents and municipalities so that they can become active participants in the energy sector. This is the main motive that will be visible in all our future proposals.“

Marie Donnelly, DG Energy

The importance of decentralised energy is also underlined by a study by Dutch consultancy CE Delft, which claims that, with an appropriate legislative framework, up to 50 % of residents could generate their own electricity.

Lead image source: Flickr @René