On 14th September, the European Parliament voted on the Revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which was proposed in July 2021 as part of the so-called ‘Fit for 55 package’ and updated in May 2022 as part of the REPowerEU plan to include a higher overall target of 45% renewable energy by 2030.
REPowerEU included also other amendments to the RED, which concern permitting procedures for renewable energy projects. However, due to the timing, these amendments have been considered as a separate file and are currently under discussion in the ITRE and ENVI committees.
The revised text voted in plenary introduce several important changes:
Increased overall RES target and additional targets (art. 3)
The Parliament supported the Commission’s proposal to raise the EU target for renewable energy in 2030 to 45%, up from the initial proposal of 40% presented in July 2021.
Moreover, compared to the Commission’s proposal, the Parliament voted to introduce three additional indicative targets: 5% of new renewable installed capacity by 2030 should come from innovative technologies; Member States shall set an indicative target for storage technologies; 5% reduction of peak electricity demand by 2030.
Higher targets for the heating and cooling sector (art. 23)
Regarding the heating and cooling sector, the Parliament voted in favour of an indicative target of 2,3 percentage points annual increase in the share of renewable energy. Where waste heat and cool is counted, the increase shall be of 2.8 percentage points. Although indicative, the new target is significantly higher than the previous one, which was set at 1,3 percentage points annual increase.
New targets for buildings and industry (artt. 15a & 22a)
Finally, the Parliament supported the Commission’s proposal to introduce new indicative targets for the building sector and industry. For buildings, the target remained at 49% of renewable energy in 2030, while for the industry, the Parliament significantly raised the target proposed by the Commission, from an indicative target of 1.1 percentage points annual increase by 2030 to 1.9 percentage points.
Solar Heat Europe commented on the outcome of the European Parliament’s plenary vote in a press release.
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