EUREC – the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centres – sees an opportunity for the Renewable Energy Directive, currently being revised, to support the aims of the Net Zero Industry Act.

Brussels, 17 March 2023. The European Parliament proposes an amendment to the renewable energy directive that would see at least 5% of all the new renewable energy capacity added to 2030 needing to be of “innovative” renewable energy technology. This could amount to several tens of gigawatts by that date. It would provide market-pull for the manufacturing facilities that NZIA wants built.

That directive’s non-binding target will, we hope, push Member States to put in place new measures to help manufacturers and installers take a chance on new, unproven high-performance technology. Some of NZIA’s measures relate to ones that we have suggested: regulatory sandboxes for deployments of all the main families of innovative renewable energy technology and “sustainability and resilience” award criteria in public procurements of energy from renewable energy sources.

But NZIA could be bolder. EUREC has advised from time to time using non-price criteria to select for products delivering any kind of performance improvement, not just an environmental performance improvement. And these criteria should not be used only for public procurement, where the State is the end customer, but in tenders offering public support to any renewable energy installation.