European Comission

The European Commission’s long-awaited reform of the European Union’s electricity market proposes to keep the merit order mechanism, but going forward the European energy market will be more strongly characterized by long-term PPAs and bilateral contracts for differences.

The European Commission listed tax exemptions, flexible aid, and the promotion of local manufacturing among its key strategies for the Green Deal Industrial Plan. However, the SolarPower Europe industry group has criticized the plan’s lack of focus on solar.

The European Commission wants to bridge the time until the revised Renewable Energy Directive RED IV has been passed and translated into national law, partly by improving conditions for PV systems up to 50 KW in size.

The Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance is one of the European Union’s key strategy initiatives under the REPowerEU plan that was adopted in May 2022. The European Commission has now formally endorsed the initiative, which is expected to launch by the end of this year.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has announced a mandatory electricity usage reduction of at least 5% during peak price hours. Electricity market restructuring measures and a €3 billion ($2.9 billion) investment for a new green hydrogen bank were also on the agenda.

Political bloc wants to source at least 32% of energy from renewable generation by 2030 and signed off on the more ambitious target as a statement of intent during the first week of the Katowice climate change conference.

Spain, Portugal, France and the European Commission have signed a deal to increase the capacity of the energy interconnection between the Iberian Peninsula and Europe. Currently, the interconnection capacity is 6,000 MW and, thus, far from the 15% goal set in 2015.