Principles of the grant award procedure
1. Grants shall be allocated by means of calls for proposals and a subsequent grant award procedure.
2. Where a Member State contributes to the mechanism by making a voluntary financial payment pursuant to Article 32(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, such contribution may only be allocated to projects selected in the context of an award procedure having lowest price as the sole award criterion.
3. Where a Member State contributes to the mechanism by making an additional payment in accordance with Article 33(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, such contribution may be allocated to joint projects, joint projects with third countries, joint support schemes, small-scale or innovative technology projects, projects in outermost regions and isolated or small islands, developing projects for integrating renewable sources into the energy system or other projects that contribute to the enabling framework pursuant to Article 3(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001.
4. The design of the award procedure shall comply with the following principles:
(a)
ensure a competitive process among grant applications to achieve cost-effective renewable energy deployment;
(b)
mitigate financial risk for applicants in the different grant award procedures;
(c)
limit transaction costs for applicants and the contributing Member States.
Scope of the grant award procedure
1. The allocation of support in the form of grants shall be carried out through grant award procedures which may be of different scope, in line with the criteria laid down in Article 4(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, as follows:
(a)
assessing the feasibility of technology-neutral grant award procedures, in which all technologies pursuant to Directive (EU) 2018/2001 shall be eligible;
(b)
alternatively, consider the use of multi-technology grant award procedures, in which only specific technologies pursuant to Directive (EU) 2018/2001 shall be eligible to compete against each other;
(c)
technology-specific grant award procedures, in which one specific technology defined in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 shall be eligible;
(d)
project-specific grant award procedures, in which project developers compete to develop a pre-identified project, which may include restrictions to a specific technology and/or to a specific site pre-identified by the host Member State;
(e)
end-use specific grant award procedures, in which only projects aimed at a specific end-use, such as heating and cooling or transport, shall be eligible.
2. The Commission shall decide on the scope of the grant award procedure, taking into account the preferences expressed by the contributing and host Member States, the renewable energy market development in the Union and other relevant circumstances.
3. The grant award procedures referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article may be open to renewable energy projects across the electricity, heating and cooling and transport sectors in order to explore the cost-effective potential and to foster convergence and cooperation.
Form and allocation of grants
1. The mechanism shall allocate grants for:
(a)
investment support granted to increase the capacity for renewable energy production;
(b)
operating support granted to incentivise the operation of renewable energy installations by providing premiums in addition to market revenues, both fixed and floating.
2. The Commission shall decide on the form of support for the awarded projects, taking into account the preferences expressed by the contributing and host Member States, the renewable energy market development in the Union and other relevant circumstances.
Investment support
Where the mechanism provides investment support, the form of support, its disbursement and other specific rules will be set out in the relevant call or calls for proposals.
Operating support
Where the mechanism provides operational support, it may take the form of a fixed premium or a floating premium. Its disbursement and other specific rules will be set out in the relevant call or calls for proposals.
Eligibility and selection criteria
The eligibility criteria and selection criteria shall be established in the call for proposals with due regard to the objectives of the action and in accordance with Article 197 and 198 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.
Award criteria
1. The award criteria for the proposals shall be established in the call for proposals and shall comply with Article 15(2) as regards the gap-filling function and with Article 3(5) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 as regars the enabling function.
2. As regards the enabling function, the award criteria for the proposals shall to the extend possible reflect the expressed preferences by Member States, notably on environmental criteria.
3. For demonstration projects representing a significant innovation, the call for proposals may establish specific award criteria, in particular with respect to applications in a technology-specific award procedure or a project-specific award procedure.
Awarded good and volume
1. The good and volume that is awarded in the grant award procedure may be defined in terms of installed capacity, in kW or energy production, in kWh. Alternatively, the volume may be defined in terms of budget, in EUR, and production capacity or energy generated may be awarded until the budget is depleted.
2. Where the grant award procedure is defined in terms of capacity or renewable energy generated, it shall set out a target volume and the support shall be awarded to projects having the highest grade according to the relevant award criteria until the target volume is reached.
3. Where the grant award procedure is defined in terms of budget, it shall set out a maximum amount of budget which is awarded to projects having the highest grade according to the relevant award criteria until that budget is depleted.
4. The volumes of the competitive grant award procedure shall be defined in advance of the procedure and shall not be adapted during the implementation of the procedure.
Implementation periods
1. Implementation periods shall be technology-specific and shall reflect realistic project delivery periods for each technology, while at the same time aiming for a significant level of pre-development required from bidders.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, in technology-neutral award procedures or multi-technology award procedures, implementation periods may be uniform across technologies in order to select projects and technologies with the lowest delivery times without discriminating certain technologies that require longer implementation periods.
3. Implementation periods shall be uniform across Member States, unless the Commission concludes, on the basis of justified exemptions such as to mitigate systematic disadvantages for projects located in a specific country, that country-specific implementation periods are appropriate.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
