On the second anniversary of REPowerEU, the European Commission has gone on to launch new steps so as to further speed up the rollout of wind energy. These major initiatives comprise recommendations as well as guidance pertaining to renewable auction design, permission, designation of renewable acceleration areas, as well as digital platform pertaining to tender planning.
In terms of auction design, the commission has gone on to clarify that the non-price criteria have to be tech-specific. The pre-qualification rules have to include cyber as well as data security and responsible business conduct, and others like innovation have to be used as awards standards. It also goes on to stipulate that supply chain resilience criteria must be applied immediately across clean technology manufacturing in Europe.
According to the chief executive of WindEurope, Giles Dickson, Europe is moving away from the wind auction solely because of price, and non-price award criteria go on to reward those projects that happen to bring the biggest value to society as well as consumers. He added that tighter pre-qualification criteria can go on to help raise the bar in terms of what kinds of turbines go on to get built. The commission also went ahead and told the member states that proper indexation of auction prices as well as penalties for non-completion of projects are, of course, critical to the success of the auctions.
But WindEurope did opine that the commission has indeed gone on to miss the trick by not letting the member states limit the bidding and that the negative bidding goes on to add the costs, which have been passed on to the consumers as well as the supply chains. Upon permitting, the commission has spelled out how the member states should go on to apply the new renewable energy directive so as to simplify the rules as well as the procedures.
WindEurope stated that they have got to set up one stop shops as well as completely digitalize their permitting procedures by November 2025. It also added that there should be a single contact point so as to oversee all this and also tackle challenges that are faced by the developing projects as well as the related infrastructure. The new renewable development platform is going to be a useful digital tool in which the industry as well as the governments can witness exactly what auctions are taking place across Europe, including when, where, and what volumes.
