BEE publishes position paper for a Renewable Acceleration Package

Source: Energy & Management Powernews, November 15 2022

Ambitious target, measures that fall short - so sees the renewable association BEE the energy policy signals of the traffic light government. And presents an acceleration package.

41 pages, ten chapters. Chapters that can be read as a countdown for an initial ignition; this is to give the German energy transition the thrust considered necessary: The BEE has now presented a position paper for a "Renewable Acceleration Package." It contains proposals for measures, which in the opinion of the federation all in this legislative period convertible would be.

Expressly welcomes the BEE the "recognizable reform will" of the new Federal Government. However the measures initiated so far would reach "still clearly too briefly". Rather, there is a threat of "a lock-in of fossil infrastructures," the organization believes. "In view of the discrepancy between ambitious targets on the one hand and insufficient instruments to achieve them on the other, a dangerous implementation gap could arise for renewables," it says. This had shown the "clearly signed" EEG tenders for wind and bioenergy.

"Declining permits as with wind on land, a location corset for solar parks that has fallen out of time or the further underestimated possibilities of biogas do not yet testify to the unleashing of the freedom energies," says association president Simone Peter. Not only is the goal of the energy turnaround at stake, Peter also fears a "prolonged cost crisis." "The price reduction effect of renewables must now be fully exploited," she appeals to politicians.

• The priority of renewables in the consideration of protected goods is still far from having arrived in practice on the ground and must be further established in specialized laws, including for heat. As a "door opener for the energy transition" it calls "sufficiently available areas,
• clearly streamlined planning and approval procedures,
• adapted to increased material costs maximum bid values in tenders, more citizen energy
• and the privileging of renewable heat."

The new position paper targets the obstacles in all important relevant regulations: Federal Immission Control Act, Building Code, Federal Nature Conservation Act, Energy Industry Act, Water Resources Act, transport permits, Renewable Energy Sources Act, Federal Promotion of Efficient Heat Networks, Federal Promotion of Efficient Buildings and a number of other laws and regulations, such as the Gas Grid Access Ordinance and the Metering Point Operation Act.

Central proposals of the BEE for wind power, photovoltaics, bioenergy, hydropower and heat are, according to the position paper:

• Wind : With the wind energy projects currently in planning with a total capacity of 8,700 MW, decisions must be made quickly in approval procedures. In addition, the potential of repowering must be leveraged. We are talking here about 4,500 MW. For this, says Peter, land must be made available and species protection requirements must be standardized. The association is calling for the federal government's 2 percent area target to become "mandatory well before 2032." Blanket distance regulations at the state level, such as 10H in Bavaria, would have to be abolished.
• Photovoltaics : For the expansion, the association demands a "general opening of disadvantaged areas in the form of an opt-out rule and the stronger integration of agricultural buildings." "In addition, grid connections must be accelerated and prosuming simplified," says Peter.
• Bioenergy : In the long term, generation must become a flexibly controllable back-up to compensate for fluctuations in wind and solar energy. Important for this is, for example, "the abolition of the approval procedure for a transitional increase in gas production, the privileging of central biogas processing plants under building law and the facilitated use of biofuels from waste and residual biomass."
• Hydropower : Here, too, complicated approval procedures prevent expansion and repowering. "Now that the overriding public interest in hydropower has been enshrined in the EEG, this status must also find its way into the technical law. That would help with the approval procedures," says Peter.
• Heat : The privileging of geothermal and solar thermal energy as well as biogas processing plants in the building code would accelerate the land designation for heat projects, emphasizes the BEE. "Instead of more complex requirements, leaner requirements are needed so that biomethane, biogas and wood arrive in the heat supply," says Peter.

The BEE makes the position paper available for download on its website: "Acceleration package for renewable energies"

Author: Manfred Fischer