Permitting is one of the big topics at the WindEurope Annual Event 2024, taking place March 20-22 in Bilbao. WindEurope spokesperson Christoph Zipf gives us a view on the situation across Europe.
Last year saw an increase in the number of onshore wind projects that received permits in all of Europe’s biggest markets.
This trend is attributed to the European Commission’s Emergency Measures on Permitting and the impending implementation of the new Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) at national level.
But, permitted volumes are still not high enough to build sufficient new wind farms to reach the EU Commission’s targets.
Permitting has been the major bottleneck for the development of new wind farms in Europe for many years. About 80 GW of wind power are stuck in permitting procedures across Europe – developers can wait up to nine years to receive permits. But things are slowly improving.
The improvements are particularly striking in Germany. Permitting authorities approved approximately 7.5 GW of new projects in 2023. This is a significant 70% increase from the previous year and a huge step forward on 2017-2019 when Germany permitted less than 2 GW each year.
This puts Germany on a promising trajectory, but it still falls short of the government’s goal to auction 10 GW of new capacity annually by 2025.
Spain had a similar trend, with permits for over 3 GW granted in 2023, a 70% surge compared to 2022. In France, new permits rose by 12%, while the United Kingdom saw a rise of 10%.
How can we explain such progress?
The new rules for the European Commission’s Emergency Measures on Permitting and the impending implementation of the new Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) include a key element: Overriding Public Interest (OPI).
The application of OPI has proven effective to expedite projects entangled in legal disputes in Germany already. Projects are winning court cases they used to lose. France, Portugal and Austria have followed suit by incorporating OPI into their legal frameworks.
Alongside OPI, the rules introduced stricter permitting deadlines. And for biodiversity, developers must now take the whole population of a species into consideration instead of individual animals.
There are other reasons for higher numbers.
Spain has increased staffing levels in its permitting authorities, and Poland abolished a notorious distance rule that used to block wind energy projects.
Special focus: Digitalising the permitting process
Under its Wind Power Package, the European Union now requires national governments to digitalise their permitting procedures. Paper-based permit applications often lead to inefficient processes, delays and substantial extra costs running into thousands of euros.
WindEurope, Amazon Web Services and Accenture are working on a solution for this issue. We joined forces to develop the EasyPermits tool, which gives governments and local municipalities the instruments to simplify and digitalise permitting.
EasyPermits is a cloud based, digital permitting platform that was developed bottom up with permitting agents in local municipalities – people that deal with the huge paperwork for each permitting file.
It has now been successfully tested in Denmark and Poland.
The tool helps permitting agents to process three times more projects at the same time, and it engages communities in a transparent and inclusive way.
For more information visit windeurope.org
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