Technology-specific renewables auctions promoted in new EU rules

    As part of the brand-new Guidelines on State Aid for Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy (CEEAG), backed by the EC today, EU member states will be able to hold technology-specific auctions as well as sustain any type of technology delivering carbon reductions, making use of tools such as contracts for difference.

    Under the new rules, rooftop PV projects approximately 1MW, as well as 100% renewable resource area or SME-owned projects up to 6MW, "will not be strained by affordable bidding process procedures", said Naomi Chevillard, senior policy advisor at trade association SolarPower Europe (SPE).

    " The brand-new state aid rules urge tenders particular to certain sustainable applications, such as agri-solar and floating solar."

    Due to be officially embraced in January 2022, the guidelines include modifications to straighten state aid rules with the EC's tactical top priorities, such as the European Green Deal as well as the Suitable for 55 plan, which intends to minimize the EU's web greenhouse gas exhausts by at the very least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 degrees.

    A new CEEAG section covers the decrease of greenhouse gas discharges, assisting in the analysis of procedures sustaining the decarbonisation of different industries of the economic climate, including with investments in renewables.

    "We want participant states to empower residents, by including energy neighborhoods in their plans, and also permitting smaller projects to take advantage of aid without a tender," claimed EU competitors principal Margrethe Vestager stated.

    According to SPE policy supervisor Claire Couet, the framework grants much more flexibility to participant states in making their aid system. "As even more participant states seek to solar and also storage to decrease exposure to volatile gas-driven electrical energy rates, hybrid solar tenders introduced in the brand-new aid rules will certainly make it possible for the development of these technologies," she stated.

    The CEEAG also includes a brand-new section on aid for the closure of coal, peat as well as oil shale plants to help with decarbonisation in the power industry.