Speeding Up Renewable Energy Permitting in Europe: Overcoming Implementation Challenges

The CERRE report “Speeding up renewable energy permitting in Europe: overcoming implementation challenges”, authored by  Catherine Banet (University of Oslo, CERRE) and Filippo Donati (University of Florence), looks at one of the central challenges in the further deployment of renewable energy: permit-granting procedures. 

Lengthy, complex and multiple parallel permitting procedures for renewable energy generation, grid connections, and related reinforcement of transmission grids have long been identified as major barriers. This delays target achievement and increases project costs, and contrasts with the pressing need to increase the share of renewable energy sources to ensure the energy transition towards climate neutrality.

To address this challenge, the European Commission has adopted different legislative and policy initiatives. Major new legislative requirements have been adopted, including as part of the emergency measures, the REPowerEU Plan from 2022 and the consecutive revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII). 

The report focuses on implementation factors of success. It analyses the constitutive building blocks – from planning to judicial review – any acceleration effort must be based on.  

The report identifies and discusses seven implementation challenges: 

1. Defining permit-granting procedure, for a clear scope delimitation  
2. Interplay between planning and permitting processes  
3. Parallel, but interlinked permitting procedures  
4. Differences in repartition of competencies for permit-granting among national authorities  
5. Prioritisation of renewable energy projects over other projects  
6. Balancing exemption regimes and safeguards 
7. Balance between common and technology/project-specific rules 

The list of identified implementation challenges reveals the dynamics, but also remaining tensions between attempts to harmonising permitting procedures at the EU level and the remaining specificities of national permitting procedures.  

The report discusses the use of national best practices and EU Commission guidance documents as a manner to guide the implementation of permit-granting acceleration. It includes an in-depth case study on Italy and a general overview of identified trends in other EU countries. It also includes examples of accelerated permitting measures for other energy technologies.