The European Parliament and the Council have reached a final agreement on the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA).
WindEurope welcomed the announcement, saying the Act will help strengthen Europe’s clean tech manufacturing and contribute to ensuring that the future of wind energy is “made in Europe”.
Furthermore, wind energy auctions’ pre-qualification criteria are now enshrined in legislation, which, along with non-price award criteria, will play a bigger role in selecting winning bids.
Pierre Tardieu, chief policy officer at WindEurope, said: “Europe is taking another decisive step away from auctions based on price only.
“The Net Zero Industry Act enshrines pre-qualification criteria to ensure auctions don’t award the cheapest projects but those projects that bring the biggest value to Europe. Good.
“The wind industry is ready to deliver value for Europe and live up to Europe’s values.” The NZIA also calls on national Governments to apply price indexation in auctions to factor in possible increases in input costs and nd to assess the effects of negative bidding on the speed and scale of renewables deployment.Uncapped negative bidding is particularly unhelpful, Wind Europe said.
It means developers have to cover the additional costs of negative bids, that they can either pass them on to the electricity consumers or on to the wind energy supply chain.
Negative bidding also adds to the overall project risk which in turn drives up capital costs, which is particularly challenging with higher interest rates now, it added. Tardieu said: “Uncapped negative bidding puts the realisation of wind projects at risk. It is very positive this issue is officially recognised in legislation supporting the expansion of European clean tech.”