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PROJECTS

Energy efficiency in permitting and inspections

  • Number: 2010/05
  • Status: Finalised
  • Period: 2010
  • Lead Country: Germany

  • Project team countries:
    Austria, Finland, Germany, Latvia

  • Participating countries:
    Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Spain, United Kingdom

Executive Summary

Energy is a priority issue within the European Union. The EU Climate Change and Energy Package forsees an increase in energy efficiency of 20% and a reduction of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020. Since the 2002/2003 Finnish led IMPEL project on energy efficiency, a current evaluation has shown that only minor changes have occurred in the consideration of energy efficiency issues in permitting and supervising procedures. The project identified 7 main challenges concerning energy efficiency:

  • In the IPPC directive it is not stipulated how energy efficiency should be addressed
  • Information on energy efficiency in sector BREFs is not concrete and precise enough. The horizontal BREF on energy efficiency is complex and has not been utilised
  • There is a lack of technical expertise in authorities and companies
  • There is a lack of, or only occasional cooperation between, energy and environmental authorities
  • There is no general approach in member states to handle the item of energy efficiency in permit revision
  • There are problems with the definition of system boundaries
  • There is unclear influence of other instruments like voluntary agreements, Energy Management Systems, tax and ETS-systems on energy efficiency of installations

For a step-by-step improvement of the situation in permit and inspection authorities participants of the workshop and the project team made proposals for the future work of IMPEL in the field of energy efficiency. Good practices were identified in relation to dealing with energy efficiency in permitting and inspection: The project showed that these good practices are not in yet place in many member states.



Project description

The main objectives of the project were:

  • to explore how member states have implemented in practice the energy efficiency provisions of the IPPC directive and handle obstacles
  • to identify how member states enforce their legal  requirements in this field
  • to find out what kind of information is required in permit applications e.g. energy efficiency indicators
  • to analyse how member states work with the BREF Energy Efficiency and information of other BREFs related to energy efficiency
  • to exchange information on existing guidance material
  • to find out what is needed most to support member states in enforcement
  • to find out which project IMPEL can carry out in the field of energy efficiency and climate change

Another aim was to find out whether alternative instruments such as voluntary agreements, environmental management systems, emission trading schemes and taxes already produce improvements in the energy efficiency performance of sites to such a degree that it might not be necessary to deal with the item in IPPC permitting and inspection.

Final report - Energy Efficiency, phase 1 Annexes I to V - Energy Efficiency, phase 1