Denmark urged the EU to simplify the process of approval of renewable energy projects

MOSCOW, 29 Aug — PRIME. Danish Energy Minister Dan Jørgensen called on EU governments to expedite the process of approving renewable energy projects (RES), writes the Financial Times, citing the minister.

The Danish energy minister called on European governments to do more to ease the process of approving renewable energy projects amid growing pressure on them to diversify away from Russian fossil fuels.

Dan Jorgensen told the newspaper that while the EU has “sent some good signals” about smoothing out permit procedures that can take up to nine years for wind farms, “we still have the potential to do better.”

“It’s not just about regulation, it’s also about how government agencies handle these processes. How do you make sure that the contractor doing the project can do it as quickly as possible?” – the newspaper quotes the words of the minister.

On Tuesday, Jørgensen will host an energy summit on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, where Denmark hopes to negotiate with Germany, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to expand wind power capacity in the region. At a similar summit in May, Denmark agreed with Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands to increase wind power capacity in the North Sea by 150 gigawatts, about 10 times the total wind power capacity in Europe today.

According to the minister, the EU has also prepared best practice recommendations on permit procedures, which need to be drastically accelerated. There are currently 2.8 GW of wind power in the Baltic Sea, of which 1.5 GW is in Denmark. The Danes believe that the potential of the Baltic Sea can be up to 93 GW, but for its implementation, the participation of other countries is needed. According to officials, negotiations on specific projects are already underway.