Investment State Aid for Ocean Energy Projects in the EU : A Lack of Integration with the Renewable Energy Directive?

Ocean energy techniques (including tidal energy, wave energy, and salinity gradient energy) can play an important role with respect to the achievement of the Member States’ specific renewable energy targets set by the Renewable Energy Directive. In 2016, the EU's Ocean Energy Forum reported that EU State aid guidelines remain ‘burdensome and restrictive.’ This article argues that the State aid framework would indeed be too restrictive if it were to prevent those renewable (ocean) energy projects which are important for achieving a Member State’s renewable energy targets from sourcing sufficient funding. This would imply a lack of integration between State aid and renewable energy policy. It is concluded that while most conditions of the General Block Exemption Regulation and the Commission Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy hardly seem to be burdensome, the State aid framework’s proportionality criteria may form a restriction to pre-commercial ocean energy projects. This article’s main suggestion is to solve this possible lack of integration by making the balancing test under the Guidelines more flexible for those situations where the State aid framework prevents important renewable (ocean) energy projects from sourcing sufficient funding. Also, two alternative solutions are discussed: improving access to finance for SMEs in the field of ocean energy, and providing for sufficient investment aid on the EU level

Large-scale Water-related Innovative Renewable Energy Projects and the Water Framework Directive: Legal Issues and Solutions

This article discusses two legal issues that relate to the conflict between the interest of protecting water quality under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), versus the interest of promoting the use of innovative water-related renewable energy, with regard to the quota in the Renewable Energy Directive. These legal issues are: first, the conflict between the provisions of the WFD and the Renewable Energy Directive as expressed by the no-deterioration obligation, and second, the lack of integration between the Renewable Energy Directive and the derogation clause of the Water Framework Directive. Tidal energy and salinity gradient energy (blue energy) are used as a case study to show the practical relevance of the legal issues for innovative water-related renewable energy techniques. The final section discusses solutions to the legal issues. These are first, the application of adaptive management in combination with phased deployment in order to deal with uncertainty, and second, the introduction of detailed renewable energy plans per Member State in order to increase integration between the WFD and the Renewable Energy Directive

Large-scale Water-related Innovative Renewable Energy Projects and the Water Framework Directive : Legal Issues and Solutions

This article discusses two legal issues that relate to the conflict between the interest of protecting water quality under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), versus the interest of promoting the use of innovative water-related renewable energy, with regard to the quota in the Renewable Energy Directive. These legal issues are: first, the conflict between the provisions of the WFD and the Renewable Energy Directive as expressed by the no-deterioration obligation, and second, the lack of integration between the Renewable Energy Directive and the derogation clause of the Water Framework Directive. Tidal energy and salinity gradient energy (blue energy) are used as a case study to show the practical relevance of the legal issues for innovative water-related renewable energy techniques. The final section discusses solutions to the legal issues. These are first, the application of adaptive management in combination with phased deployment in order to deal with uncertainty, and second, the introduction of detailed renewable energy plans per Member State in order to increase integration between the WFD and the Renewable Energy Directive

Investment State Aid for Ocean Energy Projects in the EU : A Lack of Integration with the Renewable Energy Directive?

Ocean energy techniques (including tidal energy, wave energy, and salinity gradient energy) can play an important role with respect to the achievement of the Member States’ specific renewable energy targets set by the Renewable Energy Directive. In 2016, the EU's Ocean Energy Forum reported that EU State aid guidelines remain ‘burdensome and restrictive.’ This article argues that the State aid framework would indeed be too restrictive if it were to prevent those renewable (ocean) energy projects which are important for achieving a Member State’s renewable energy targets from sourcing sufficient funding. This would imply a lack of integration between State aid and renewable energy policy. It is concluded that while most conditions of the General Block Exemption Regulation and the Commission Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy hardly seem to be burdensome, the State aid framework’s proportionality criteria may form a restriction to pre-commercial ocean energy projects. This article’s main suggestion is to solve this possible lack of integration by making the balancing test under the Guidelines more flexible for those situations where the State aid framework prevents important renewable (ocean) energy projects from sourcing sufficient funding. Also, two alternative solutions are discussed: improving access to finance for SMEs in the field of ocean energy, and providing for sufficient investment aid on the EU level

Large-scale Water-related Innovative Renewable Energy Projects and the Habitats and Birds Directives: Legal Issues and Solutions

This article discusses two legal issues that relate to the conflict between the interest of protecting habitats and species under the Habitats and Birds Directives, versus the interest of promoting the use of innovative water-related renewable energy, with regard to the quota in the Renewable Energy Directive. These legal issues are: first, the possible conflict between the protection rules of the Habitats and Birds Directive on the one hand and the Renewable Energy Directive on the other hand, and second, the lack of integration between the Renewable Energy Directive and the derogation clauses of the Habitats and Birds Directives. Tidal stream energy is used as a case study to show the practical relevance of the legal issues for the large-scale deployment of innovative water-related renewable energy techniques. The final sections discuss solutions to the legal issues. These are first, the application of adaptive management in combination with mitigation or phased deployment, in order to deal with uncertainty, and second, the introduction of detailed renewable energy plans per Member State in order to increase integration between the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Renewable Energy Directive. The final sections also discuss the applicability of the findings of this article to other innovative water-related renewable energy sources such as wave energy and salinity gradient energy (blue energy)