Electricity grids: MEPs back plans to accelerate energy project permit process 

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament.

• Changes to help building of renewable energy projects, electricity grids, storage facilities, recharging stations 
• Shorter deadlines, higher capacity thresholds, tacit approval 
• Complicated permitting procedures are a bottleneck for clean energy deployment 

The proposal adopted on Thursday will allow faster permitting for electricity grids and renewables projects, to help cut energy prices through the domestic supply of clean energy.

MEPs on the Industry, Research and Energy Committee have backed a proposal to speed up the granting of permits for renewable energy projects, electricity grids, storage facilities, and recharging stations across the European Union, as part of the broader European grids package. The draft legislation introduces shorter deadlines, a single national digital portal for all permitting steps, and a dedicated EU-wide permitting framework for electricity grid infrastructure.

In their amendments, MEPs want to broaden and strengthen the presumption of over-riding public interest for renewable energy projects and electricity grids. They want to remove the possibility for EU member states to restrict, or create exceptions to, this presumption, except in duly justified cases strictly necessary to protect formally designated cultural heritage.

MEPs also want new rules, accelerated deadlines and more transparency for grid connection procedures. Procedures must not exceed three months, and, if the deadline passes, some projects should be tacitly approved. New grid connection deadlines are introduced for installation in and outside acceleration areas (six to nine months, depending on location and technology).

MEPs also suggest raising the capacity thresholds triggering the requirement for a permit, from 100 kW to 200 kW for small-scale solar installations, energy storage and recharging stations. Similarly, no administrative permits will be needed for the installation of recharging stations with a total installed capacity of 1MW or less on artificial structures.

Sharing the benefits

The threshold for mandatory benefit sharing (the redistribution of economic benefits generated by the project to local communities hosting or affected by it) should be lowered from 10 MW to 7 MW, say MEPs. Renewable energy communities and citizen-developed projects are explicitly exempted from the obligation. MEPs emphasise that vulnerable households should receive an adequate share of benefits.

MEPs also propose the introduction of a one-month permitting deadline for heat pumps below 50 MW (three months for ground-source), with tacit approval.

Quote

“Europe is highly dependent on costly imported fossil fuels and this needs to change. I’m happy we have adopted a very ambitious agreement that will make a real difference on the ground, without sacrificing environmental standards.” said lead MEP Niels Fuglsang (S&D, Denmark). “With this text, we are speeding up the building of Europe’s electricity grids and home-grown renewables, which is urgently needed to ensure affordable energy and energy independence through the electrification of European households and industry, not to mention its critical importance in order to reach Europe’s energy and climate targets” he added.

Next steps

The legislative proposal was adopted by 57 votes in favour and 3 against, with 8 abstentions. MEPs also voted to open negotiations with Council, by 64 votes to 3, with no abstention. Interinstitutional negotiations will start under the Irish Presidency of the Council, following the Council’s adoption of its own position on the file and once the Parliament’s mandate has been confirmed by plenary.

Background

Slow and complicated permitting procedures remain one of the main factors causing delays in the development of energy projects across the EU. Electricity transmission grids take around 10 years for completion, of which permitting accounts for more than half of the time needed, while permitting of renewable energy projects can still take up to nine years depending on the member state and the technology involved, and storage installations can take from one to seven years.

On 10 December 2025, the European Commission published a proposal to accelerate permit-granting procedures, as part of the European grids package announced under the Competitiveness Compass for the Union and the Clean Industrial Deal.