Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1176, CHAPTER I — SUBJECT MATTER, DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES (Article 1–Article 3) — Full Text

Subject matter

Article 1

This Regulation lays down specifications for the criteria laid down in Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1735.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: (1) ‘renewable energy community’ means a renewable energy community as defined in Article 2(16) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001; (2) ‘due diligence’ means a process whereby companies identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address the environmental and social negative impacts resulting from their business activities related to the auction; these include negative impacts connected with the company’s own operations and its upstream and downstream value chain, including through its products or services, as well as through its business relationships; (3) ‘network and information system’ means network and information systems as defined in Article 6, point 1 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 27 ) ; (4) ‘security of network and information systems’ means security of network and information systems as defined in Article 6, point (2) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555; (5) ‘operational control’ means the authority to introduce and implement operating policies that govern day-to-day activities, processes and resources to ensure the smooth functioning of an installation, and in particular of its network and information systems; (6) ‘assembling’ of a PV module means the integration and interconnection of a series of PV cells or equivalent components as listed in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1178 into a single unit; (7) ‘carbon footprint’ means the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas removals in a product system, considering all relevant activities within the spatial and temporal boundary of the system, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents assessed based on 100-year time horizon global warming potentials and calculated based on a life cycle assessment study using the single impact category of climate change; (8) ‘circular economy’ means an economic system whereby the value of products, materials and other resources in the economy is maintained for as long as possible, enhancing their efficient use in production and consumption, thereby reducing the environmental impact of their use, minimising waste and the release of hazardous substances at all stages of their life cycle, including through the application of the waste hierarchy; (9) ‘biodiversity impact’ means any change in biodiversity such as in the abundance or distribution of species or distribution, structure and functions of habitats and ecosystems as a direct or indirect effect of net-zero technologies along their life cycle; (10) ‘energy efficiency’ means the ratio of output of energy to the input of energy in the case of energy-generating products or the conversion efficiency, i.e. the ratio of the output of energy to the input of energy in the case of energy-converting and energy storage products; (11) ‘pollution’ means pollution as defined in Article 3, point (2) of Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 28 ) and, for water-related pollution, as defined in Article 2(33) of Directive 2000/60/EC; (12) ‘temporal flexibility’ means the ability of market participants to adapt generation, grid feed-in and consumption patterns to contribute to system needs across the relevant time frames, generally by reacting to market signals, in particular in the electricity sector; (13) ‘locational impact’ means the ability of market participants to help address the needs of the electricity system based on the selection of the site and the grid connection point; (14) ‘connection across energy carriers’ means the ability of market participants to transfer energy from one energy carrier to another through energy conversion assets.

General principles

Article 3

Non-price criteria in auctions pursuant to Article 26(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 shall comply with the following general principles: (a) they shall be defined and evaluated in an objective, transparent and non-discriminatory manner, taking into account the policy objectives of the auction and the potential contribution of each technology to those objectives; (b) they shall reflect the market maturity of the technologies addressed and may be designed by involving relevant interested market participants, including developers, manufacturers, civil society and experts, in the different non-price criteria included in the auction; (c) they shall contribute to the rapid, efficient and sustainable deployment of renewable energy in a competitive manner, attract private investment and provide benefits such as investment certainty; (d) they shall ensure a competitive bidding process and avoid creating insurmountable and unjustified entry barriers and disproportionate costs, while dissuading companies without a firm intention of realising the project and meeting the project specifications from bidding; (e) they shall be applied in accordance with Union law and the commitments of the Union pursuant to international trade and investment agreements; (f) they shall use assessment methods provided for in Union legislation for that net-zero technology, where available; (g) where delegated acts under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 set classes of performance in relation to net-zero technologies, the relevant criteria of the auction for the deployment of such net-zero technology shall be based on those classes of performance.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1176 CHAPTER I — SUBJECT MATTER, DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

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