EU Member States must send the Commission the text of the national implementing measures, which incorporate the provisions of the RED II into their legislation. As SolarPower Europe found from its assessments of NECPs in its 2020 EU Market Outlook, the RED II implementation does include wins for the solar industry, however, this is hampered by bottlenecks and lengthy administrative processes.
On the positive side: all Member States, with the exception of Latvia, have set themselves a concrete solar deployment target for 2030, and many include intermediate trajectories and plans for what will happen after 2030. Further, Member States have put forward productive enabling frameworks to promote prosumer business models through capacity building and with dedicated financial schemes.
Far from reaching the full potential of solar
However, Member States’ targets to deploy solar are far from reaching the full potential of solar, and they have been slow in implementing key aspects of the RED II, including those related to improving administrative procedures and removing barriers for PPAs.
See also: Agrisolar Best Practice Guidelines released
Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, commented: “Implementation is the key word of successful climate politics. While the Fit for 55 Package must set the EU on track to reach climate neutrality by 2050 by setting higher targets for 2030, increased ambition will be required for Member States to fully implement the existing RED II provisions and for the European Commission to effectively monitor the process.”
What actions should Member States be taking?
Naomi Chevillard, Senior Policy Advisor at SolarPower Europe, added: “The removal of existing bottlenecks for the permitting of renewable energy projects should be prioritised in the transposition of the Clean Energy Package. Member States should effectively transpose and enforce the permitting rules from the 2018 RED II, enabling renewable projects to go through a single contact point, with shorter and digitalised processes. To help them do so, we proposed the creation of permitting guidelines in the Fit for 55 Package, which should identify best implementation practices and improve performance monitoring.”
Also interesting: Renwables beat conventional power plants clearly
Read SolarPower Europe’s position paper with key recommendations on the RED II and how to deliver 45 per cent renewable energy in the EU by 2030.
