European energy storage industry calls for legal clarity on project permitting timelines
Source：pv magazine
The Energy Storage Europe Association has made several recommendations to European Union (EU) policymakers to address the energy storage industry’s ongoing problem with permitting bottlenecks. In a newly published position paper on improving energy storage project permitting procedures, the organization maintains the current approaches are slowing Energy Storage Europe’s 2030 projection of 200 GW of energy storage capacity in the region.
The Association recommends introducing binding time limits for permitting to provide certainty for investors and speed up deployment. With caveats, the maximum deadlines it suggested are 12- or 24 months.
The paper noted that while legislative frameworks such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) aims to accelerate permitting, implementation varies across Member States. In some markets, the entire permitting process for large projects can take up to nine years.
Streamlined permitting could make a big impact in markets like Germany, where project developers have suffered a setback with the German government indicating it may reverse planning privileges for battery storage that were previously approved by the German parliament only weeks ago.
“These inconsistencies create bottlenecks, with some projects facing permitting timelines exceeding several years. The lack of harmonized frameworks, coupled with regulatory barriers such as double grid charges and unclear ownership rules, along with lack of skilled workforce in the permitting authorities (at national, regional and local level) complicates the rollout of diverse storage technologies,” the paper claimed, although its comment was not directed towards any particular market.
Although it did not advocate for the reopening of EU legislative files, it did recommend that if RED III and other files are to be amended in the future, reviews should consider introducing maximum permit-granting durations for standalone energy storage.
It further added that a byproduct of this uneven application of accelerated permitting rules means battery energy storage systems (BESS) are often prioritized at the expense of other technologies such as compressed air, thermal or long-duration energy storage – leading to disparities in deployment timelines.
While RED III contains provisions for exemptions from some environmental assessments in designated ‘Renewables Acceleration Zones’, these are not applied to all storage technologies, which leads to delays in non-BESS projects, the paper’s authors said. They added that permit interdependencies create deadlocks as in several markets environmental approval or market pre-qualification can’t proceed without prior grid access, which delays investment decisions and freezes projects.
The Energy Storage Europe Association recommends that the EU should introduce a requirement for Member States to identify and publish grid and storage acceleration areas aligned with network development plans and revise RED III to include “a technology-neutral non-discrimination clause” for permitting of energy storage technologies, “prohibiting preferential or exclusionary treatment unless justified by proportionate, evidence-base environmental or safety criteria.”
Another key recommendation the Energy Storage Europe Association outlined in its position paper was the development of a pan-European digital platform for energy storage permitting. Such a platform would create cross-border collaboration, improve standardization and provide a knowledge-sharing database for industry and policymakers alike.
Finally, environmental assessment procedures can frequently contribute to project backlogs. The association called for the EU to ensure that standalone and co-located energy storage projects should only be subject to full Environmental Impact Assessments where proportionate environmental risks exist. It recommended a simplified screening procedure where projects are not held up by unnecessary assessments or local opposition.