New RED II Renewable Energy Directive and Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

The RED II Renewable Energy Directive was approved on 14 June 2018 (Press note).

Member states will have to include the new elements of the Directive into national law by 30 June 2021.

The main aspects of the new Directive are:

Overall renewables target 32% + upward review clause in 2023
Improvement the design and stability of support schemes for renewables.
Delivers real streamlining and reduction of administrative procedures.
Establishes a clear and stable regulatory framework on self-consumption.

For the geothermal sector:

Increases the level of ambition for the heating/cooling sector.
Heat pumps enabling the use of ambient and geothermal energy at a useful temperature level or systems providing cooling need electricity or other auxiliary energy to function. The energy used to drive these systems should therefore be deducted from the total usable energy or energy removed from the area. Only such heating and cooling systems where the output or energy removed from an area significantly exceeds the primary energy needed to drive it should be taken into account. Cooling systems contribute to the energy use in Member States and it is therefore appropriate that the calculation methods take into account the renewable share of the energy used in such systems in all end use sectors.
The European Commission should only facilitate the deployment of geothermal energy with low environmental impact and resulting in greenhouse gas saving compared to conventional sources.

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844 has been published in the EU Official Journal (L156) and will enter into force as of 9 July 2018. EU countries will have to transpose the new elements of the Directive into national law within 20 months. The main aspects are:

The new regulatory framework includes an energy efficiency target for the EU for 2030 of 32.5% with an upwards revision clause by 2023.
The Primary Energy Factor has been adopted with a default coefficient of 1, with a revision every 4 years to consider the effects on other EU legislation, such as Eco-design and Energy Labelling.
Concerning the annual energy savingsfrom the final energy consumption up to 2030, the agreed mandatory rate is 8% : exemptions to this saving rate include for instance renewable produced in buildings.
Member States shall also express those targets in terms of an absolute level of primary energy consumption and final energy consumption in 2020 and shall explain how, and on the basis of which data, this has been calculated.
Each Member State shall establish a long-term renovation strategy to support the renovation of the national stock of residential and non-residential buildings, both public and private, into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.