EU Renewable Energy Permitting: State of Play

One of the main challenges that remains is project permitting. To this day, permitting remains a major bottleneck, preventing the sector from reaching its full potential. Recent data shows that in several European countries, permitting delays for solar projects exceed two years, and in some cases stretch up to four years. These timelines are double the maximum duration allowed under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) framework. 

The REDIII entered into force on 20 November 2023, laying out a minimum binding target of at least 42.5% for renewable energy deployment by 2030. To achieve this goal, the directive includes specific measures to expedite the granting of permits for renewable energy projects. Member States were set a deadline of 30 June 2024 to transpose the directive’s permit-granting elements into their national law. While some good practices have emerged, more than a year since the final transposition deadline, the enactment of streamlined permitting procedures is still lagging. 

This new report tracks Member States' progress on the Renewable Energy Directive, highlighting key issues that persist in transposing the Directive into law at local level. The report includes case studies indicating a range of good to poor practices in the implementation of the RED III provisions.

Finally, the report includes our policy recommendations, calling on the European Commission to give more attention to effective implementation on the ground, and targeted spending of EU funds to empower local permitting authorities.