Permitting Guide for Onshore Renewable Energy Projects

APREN presented its Renewable Project Permitting Guide, an initiative that involved the two main government entities associated with the permitting of this type of projects: the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG).

 

The guide, prepared with the support of the consultancy BioInsight, makes visible the main stages of the permitting process for renewable projects, in order to make the steps that make up the process easily identifiable and, as such, simplify them.

 

It comes at a time when targets for installing renewable power are becoming increasingly ambitious. At an international level, the European Commission's “REPowerEU” strategy, announced in 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine, placed renewables at the center of a European energy security plan. It provided for renewable projects to be considered in the public interest, among many other points.

 

At national level, the Portuguese Government recently presented its proposal for a National Energy and Climate Plan 2030 (PNEC 2030) to the European Commission, which sets the objective of having 47 GW of renewable power in 2023 – close to triple the installed capacity at the end. 2022.

 

The complexity and timing of the permitting process for renewable projects are decisive challenges for which the sector has been asking, for several years, for rapid and effective intervention, in order to unlock the planned private investment of around 60 billion euros in renewables. until 2030.

 

The launch of the permitting guide, designed with the participation of these three entities, aims precisely to improve the permitting process for everyone: both for project promoters and responsible entities, clarifying the process and its requirements, providing thus a contribution to accelerating the energy transition.

 

The project to prepare the permitting guide began in March 2022, with the creation of a technical monitoring committee that integrated elements from APREN, APA and DGEG. The guide will be dedicated, in this first phase, to onshore renewable wind and solar energy projects, but the ambition is that it can be extended to other types.

 

Previously, APREN, in collaboration with official entities, had already carried out a mapping of the critical points of permits, which was sent to the guardianship. The association is committed to making its contribution in this area by developing a permiting guide, an initiative that has now been concluded.