Publish Date : 19-Jun-2018
New EU ambitious targets for renewables, including self-consumption and biofuels, were agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on Wednesday night.
Parliament and Council provisionally agreed on a share of energy from renewables of at least 32% of the Unions gross final consumption in 2030, with an upwards revision clause by 2023.
The two co-legislators decided to implement the energy-efficiency first principle, meaning prioritising, in all energy planning, policy and investment decisions, measures to make energy demand and supply more efficient.
Cleaner transports, greater use of second-generation biofuels
A minimum share of at least 14% of fuel for transport purposes must come from renewable sources by 2030. In particular: first generation biofuel, based on food crops, must be capped at 2020 levels (with an extra 1%) and in no case exceed 7% of final consumption of road and rail transport;
the share of advanced biofuels and biogas must be at least 1% in 2025 and at least 3,5% in 2030.
Palm oil ban
Food-crop biofuels like palm oil, which have a high indirect land use change (ILUC, i.e. changing how land from non-crop cultivation, such as grasslands and forests, with a negative impact on CO2 emissions, is used), will be phased out through a certification process for low ILUC biofuels, which is to be set up.
Renewable Self-Consumer Era
According the provisional deal, member states must ensure that an EU consumer is entitled to become a renewable self-consumer, who may: generate renewable energy for their own consumption, store and sell excess production; install and operate electricity storage systems combined with installations generating renewable electricity for self-consumption, without liability for any double charge; not to be subject to any charge or fee on self-consumed energy until 2026, with some limited exceptions foreseen thereafter; receive remuneration for the self-generated renewable electricity they feed into the grid; join renewable energy communities to integrate self-consumption into the transition to cleaner energy.
Clean and digital heating/cooling sector
The provisional deal provides a sub-target of an indicative 1,3% yearly increase of renewables in heating and cooling installations, calculated on a period of 5 years starting from 2021.
Member states must ensure that information on energy performance and the share of renewables in their district heating and cooling systems is provided to final consumers in an accessible manner. Customers of district heating or cooling systems that are not efficient are allowed to terminate their contracts in order to produce heating or cooling from renewable energy sources themselves.
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