Member States of the European Union, through the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER I), have voted to maintain priority dispatch for small-scale solar PV installations up to 400kW.
The vote was in favour of upholding an agreement laid out in the Electricity Market Design Directive.
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Last week, Aurélie Beauvais, policy director of SolarPower Europe, said: “Today's vote is a huge victory for small-scale solar and renewable energy consumers. It rewards the intensive efforts deployed by SolarPower Europe and 17 major stakeholders active in the Small is Beautiful campaign. This will pave the way for a significant growth of the small-scale solar market in Europe, open new business opportunities for our members and strengthen Europe's industrial leadership in highly innovative and decentralised energy systems. It is important that Member States now seize this opportunity and develop adequate measures for small-scale solar in their National Energy and Climate Plans.”
Naomi Chevillard, policy advisor at SolarPower Europe said: “The initial plan to remove priority dispatch would have subjected households, schools, hospitals and small businesses that have invested in solar to disproportionate market and administrative requirements. Having avoided this, we can now look forward to a bright future for decentralised solar generation and consumer empowerment, which is positive news for the clean energy transition.”
Proposals to cut priority dispatch for renewables were deemed “retroactive” and “irresponsible” in 2017 by the former head of European association SolarPower Europe. PV Tech also looked more closely at the possiblity of European renewables without priority dispatch in 2016, just as the continent had reached the 100GW deployment milestone.