Blog
16.07.2021

Emissions must be rapidly reduced

Foto: Vestas Wind Systems A/S

Rene Tammist, Utilitas Renewable Energy Development Manager

On Wednesday, the European Commission presented a package of measures Fit-for-55 to achieve the goals of the recently adopted European Climate Law to make European society and the economy climate neutral by 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. According to the Utilitas Renewable Energy Development Manager, Rene Tammist, there are several challenges to achieving these goals, and vigorous measures are needed.

The European Commission’s proposal raises the EU’s renewable energy target from 32% to 40% by 2030. This means that the EU will need 451 GW of wind power capacity by 2030, compared to 180 GW today. Thus, 30 GW of new wind farms must be installed annually in the EU until 2030, while at today’s pace, only 15 GW are planned to be added each year from 2021 until 2025.

A higher pan-European goal means that all member states, including Estonia, must adjust their domestic renewable energy goals upwards, and strengthen measures to achieve these more ambitious goals. The main growth in the production of renewable energy in Estonia should come from wind energy, including the more extensive use of wind electricity produced by offshore wind parks.

In its package of measures, the European Commission makes a series of proposals to speed up planning and permit procedures for the deployment of wind energy. In Estonia, too, complicated and time-consuming rules and procedures are the main obstacle to the more extensive use of wind energy.

“Estonia has a particularly poor situation with using marine areas for the development of wind energy. We are one of the few EU countries where maritime planning has still not been adopted, even though the EU maritime spatial planning directive obliged the country to establish it plan by the end of March 2021 at the latest,” said Rene Tammist.  “We hope that this process will now move forward quickly because Estonia has an important level of wind energy potential that must be utilized. The European Commission certainly has a key role to play in cooperation with member states to help them simplify permitting rules and procedures, and to promote best practices.”

The amendment to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive also significantly improves the legal framework for businesses in concluding agreements for the purchase of electricity and triggers additional demand from industry and other large energy consumers, who want to source renewable energy directly. The package includes annual renewable energy targets for the industry, with which the share of renewable energy should grow by 1.1% per year.

“I am very happy about the strong measures in the transport sector, where there must be a 13% reduction in the carbon intensity of fuels,” said Tammist. “At the same time, ambitious goals have been set for green hydrogen. The goal is for green hydrogen to make up 2.6% of transport fuels by 2030.”

The measures oblige member states to build a hydrogen filling station every 150 km on main roads and an electric charging point for electric vehicles every 60 km. “In the future, the road transport sector will be covered by a separate emissions trading system, and shipping and aviation will be covered by the existing trading system, thus increasing the demand for alternative fuels by leaps and bounds. This confirms that the contributions to the hydrogen sector by the Estonian government and entrepreneurs have been in the right direction,” explains Tammist.

According to Tammist, Fit-for-55 is an ambitious package and will prove very difficult for Estonia to achieve these goals in several economic sectors. In order to avoid the irrational purchase of emission quotas from other member states and to increase the competitiveness of our companies, we must start reducing emissions with really strong measures. All sectors must be engaged without exception. Fortunately, the Commission also provides additional funds to support the transition.

The EU’s climate package includes higher goals for renewable energy sources and new proposals to support renewable energy. The Fit-for-55 package changes more than ten pieces of legislation, including the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Taxation Directive, the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, and the EU Emissions Trading System.