Wind industry body WindEurope has identified permitting problems as a major stumbling block in allowing countries across Europe to meet their wind energy deployment targets.
Following analysis of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) for 26 European countries by the organisation, WindEurope recognised that although the NECPs offer long-term plans for wind power development, few set out solutions to manage the existing permitting bottlenecks.
WindEurope CEO, Giles Dickson explains; “The 2030 National Plans are the wind sector’s investment brochures. They allow banks and developers to plan future investments into wind. But the wind volumes in the NECPs remain purely academic if the policies to unlock these investments are not in place. The EU needs to push Member States to make the necessary improvements – especially in permitting.”
If the NECPs submitted were successfully implemented, it would allow the EU to exceed its target of 32% renewables in the final energy mix by 2030, however this will not be achieved unless there is significant simplification of the rules and processes for securing a windfarm permit.
Dickson continues; “Wind energy is the backbone in delivering both a green recovery and decarbonisation by 2050. If the EU does not get permitting of new wind farm right as soon as possible, Europe will miss its energy and climate targets badly. Easing permitting is almost completely missing in the NECPs submitted. Europe needs to sort this out urgently.”
