Measures include “reducing need for environmental impact assessment”
Portugal’s president has promulgated the decree-law that extends the deadline for exceptional measures to simplify renewable energy production procedures, such as reducing the need for an environmental impact assessment (EIS) outside sensitive areas.
The government approved this law change on February 22.
According to a statement by the Council of Ministers, the amendment aims to “ensure the progress made under these measures, as well as their relevance to achieving the objectives set at national and European level, particularly with regard to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and accelerating the energy transition“.
A decree, valid for two years, was published in government gazette Diário da República in April 2022 ordering the simplification of procedures for producing energy from renewable sources, reducing the need for EIAs outside sensitive areas.
“Considering that the increase in fossil fuel prices particularly affects vulnerable consumers or those in a situation of energy poverty, aggravating disparities and inequalities in the European Union and that companies, in particular energy-intensive industries, as well as the agri-food sector face higher production costs,” the “European Commission considered that accelerating the ecological transition will reduce emissions, reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and provide protection against sharp price increases,” read the 2022 decree.
Thus, “it is proposed to increase the production of biomethane and renewable hydrogen, the deployment of solar and wind energy, the implementation of innovative solutions based on hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources at competitive costs in industrial sectors, as well as the simplification and reduction of the time limits for granting licences, which is a precondition for the acceleration of renewable energy projects”.
The decree-law went on to explain that, “in line with the measures advocated by the European Commission, this decree-law adjusts the case-by-case assessment for the submission of power generation centre projects, determining that outside sensitive areas, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) authority’s opinion, which has always been mandatory until now, will only be issued at the request of the licensing authority when there are indications that the project is likely to have significant impacts on the environment.”
To this end, “the new reality of hydrogen production projects by electrolysis of water, whose production process is free of hazards and pollution and which, until now, did not have the appropriate framework in these legal regimes, is being promoted within the environmental and integrated pollution prevention and control regimes.”
On the other hand, in order to speed up “the entry into operation of electro-producing centres for renewable energy sources, storage facilities, production units for self-consumption”, “the prior issue of an operating licence or operating certificate to be issued by the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology is waived for the purposes of entry into operation, provided that the grid operator confirms the existence of technical conditions for connection to the public service electricity grid (RESP)”, said the government.
Source: LUSA
