Environmental legislation

EGEC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Commission’s guidelines on designating renewables acceleration areas (RAAs) and highlight the following: Need for a fair evaluation of geothermal-based electricity A higher use of non-price criteria is needed Need for renewable energy auctions by technology Read the full EGEC Response. See EGEC factsheet on Auctions to deploy geothermal.

EGEC welcomes the Commission's effort to assess the state of public funding and the capacity of EU countries to increase the uptake of private investment in energy efficiency. We firmly believe that geothermal energy can give a great contribution towards this objective.

EGEC welcomes the Commission effort to provide guidance to Member States and market actors on how to unlock private investment, notably by developing innovative financing tools, scaling up financial instruments and making the most of public budget support.

EGEC views on the EU Critical Raw Materials Act   EGEC, the voice of the European geothermal industry, is a not-for-profit association representing the entire value-chain of the industry across 28 countries. It is included on the European Transparency Register number: 11458103335-07. Further information can be found at www.egec.org.

In a bid to accelerate renewable energy deployment, the European Commission is looking at means to accelerate permitting processes.

EGEC invites all geothermal stakeholders to take part in the two consultations below on EIA and licensing.

The integration of circularity into geothermal energy production indicates that all its components and products need to be optimised, re-used, repaired, redistributed, refurbished, and/or remanufactured. Circularity is the cornerstone of a sustainable future, where geothermal and other renewable sources have a crucial role to play.

Sustainable finance is an increasingly important topic in European policy making. A proposed regulation by the European Commission on this topic will have a major impact on the private financial sector, and its relationship with geothermal and other renewable energy investments.

In the Plenary vote of the European Parliament on the Renewable Energy Directive on 17/01/2018, several Amendments aiming at adding regulatory burden to geothermal projects are subject to a vote. These proposals, supported by Italian EFDD (5 Star Movement) MEPs, are supported by arguments that are at odds with the conclusions of independent studies and the state of the regulatory framework for geothermal energy.

Amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive were tabled by Members of the European Parliament in June 2017.