On November 30, The European Commission released a set of legislative measures related to the energy sector, referred to as the Clean Energy Package. These measures are part of the implementation of the Energy Union strategy, and are aimed at providing the legislative framework for the period 2020 – 2030 for the energy sector in Europe.

Most notably, the package contains the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Together, they constitute the legislative pillars underpinning the EU renewable energy sector.

ESTIF has been welcoming the unprecedented focus on renewable heating in the RED, through the introduction of a new dedicated tool to boost deployment of renewable heating technologies such as solar thermal. This new article 23 in the RED will require Member States to endeavour to increase the share of renewable energy supplied for heating and cooling by at least 1% every year, possibly through obligation schemes at national level.

However, this measure has lost a more strictly mandatory nature that it had in the leaked draft of the Directive, which ESTIF managed to have access to. ESTIF will therefore strive to reinstitute the mandatory elements during the next stages of the legislative procedure. Indeed, being this the European Commission proposal, it is only the first step: all pieces of legislation must now undergo debate both in the European Parliament and the Council. ESTIF will work in each and every step of this procedure to improve the text.

The package contains several other measures interesting for the solar thermal industry, such as measures to promote district heating, minimum level of renewables in new buildings, promotion of smart heat meters, inclusion of renewables in the energy efficiency obligation schemes, long-term building renovation strategies, and the so-called Smart Financing for Smart Building Initiative. It also contains some critical elements, such as the lowering of the Primary Energy Factor to 2.0, and an overall low ambition RES target of 27%. ESTIF is still in the process of assessing and analysing the whole package: we will come back to you with more detailed analysis and action proposals as quickly as possible!

 

In order to access the full ESTIF Press Release, please click here.

In order to access the Commission webpage on the package, please click here.