Europe’s ambitious plans to replace Russian gas with better interconnection of solar and wind transmission networks could be hampered by red tape. According to the latest analyzes of the British energy institute Ember, permits for the construction of solar and wind power plants in the network are issued very difficult in the European Union, and the slowest – in Croatia, writes the Croatian Jutarnji List.

Ember analysts, taking data from (only) 12 EU members, found that in Croatia it takes 48 months to obtain permits for the installation and connection to the grid of solar panels, and 120 months for wind farms, while the deadlines required by the EU in in both cases is 24 months.

According to the same source, only three member states, led by Lithuania, met the EU criteria by issuing all necessary permits to their solar investors during the year. Belgium and Romania also fall under the recommended deadline for this type of “innovative energy”.

As for EU deadlines for wind farms, no EU member has yet met the criteria, the closest being Romania, which issues the necessary permits within 30 months.

“Permitting includes all the administrative processes necessary to implement an idea, up to the actual construction of a wind farm or solar power plant, including obtaining building permits, carrying out an environmental impact assessment and adapting to the local urban plan,” explains the Ember Institute. a report that also analyzes the Union members’ prospects for achieving the planned share of electricity production from wind farms.

According to the latter criterion, Croatia leads the list of analyzed countries, i.e. among the four that, according to Ember, will achieve the expected share of production from wind farms by 2030. Sweden, Finland and Lithuania are also in this top. (joyful)

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