The EU is supporting the build up of energy infrastructure to ensure the integrity of the Internal Energy Market. Programme such as the Trans European Network for Energy (TEN-E) and the Connecting Europe Facility have been challenging important amount of public funding and derisking to large energy infrastructure projects. Traditionnally, the gas transmission network has been a core beneficiary of these policies.
Renewable geothermal heating and cooling district heating networks must be incorporated into the revised TEN-E framework to achieve the internal market for energy. Article 1 and Annex 1 of Regulation 347/2013 limit this Regulation to ‘priority corridors’ in electricity, fossil gas and oil as well as ‘thematic areas’ such as smart grids and CO2 networks. This has locked-out geothermal and other renewable heating solutions creating a significant distortion in the functioning of the internal market for energy overall and heat in particular. Furthermore, smart thermal grids and underground thermal energy storage must be incorporated into TEN-E planning and financing programme.
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