Source: European Parliament
Renewable power generation is key to lower energy prices, reinforce EU’s competitiveness and energy autonomy and achieve EU’s decarbonisation objectives.
Mindful of the importance of balancing energy generation with other public interests, EU legislation has established a comprehensive legal framework to fully explore synergies for land and encourage the multiple use of space.
Moreover, the EU legislative framework is also supportive of renewables small-scale projects, energy communities and self-consumption, particularly through Article 16d and 21 of the Renewables Energy Directive[1] and Article 15 and 15a of the Electricity Market Directive[2].
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive[3] also includes a phased obligation to install solar energy on certain categories of buildings.
Full implementation of these provisions by Member States is urgent and should be encouraged. Member States may also develop their own initiatives to boost self-consumption, as Spain is doing through various reforms and investments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan[4], including its REPowerEU chapter.
Highlighting this complementarity, the EU Solar Energy Strategy recognises that to meet our EU targets we need both rooftop and utility-scale solar.
It underlines how innovative forms of deployment, such as infrastructure-integrated solar, plug-in mini-solar or agrisolar systems can help mitigate land constraints.
Some of them also help to promote renewables self-consumption. To complement the strategy, the Commission is also developing recommendations and guidance for Member States in this area.
- [1] Consolidated text: Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (recast).
- [2] Consolidated text: Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU (recast).
- [3] Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings (recast) (Text with EEA relevance).
- [4] Component 7 includes Reform 2 (C7.R2) on National self-consumption strategy, Reform 3 (C7.R3) on Development of energy communities and investment 1 (C7.I1) for the development of innovative renewable energies, integrated into buildings and production processes. Component 8 includes investment 3 (C8.I3) to develop new business models in the energy transition. Component 31 (REPowerEU) includes r Investment 1 (C31.I1) to promote self-consumption (based on renewable energy and behind-the-meter storage) and energy communities.