European Union (Renewable Energy and Biofuel Sustainability Criteria) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 169/2018
• Year: 2018

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 25th May, 2018.

I, DENIS NAUGHTEN, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 20091 as amended by Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 20152 , hereby make the following regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (Renewable Energy and Biofuel Sustainability Criteria) (Amendment) Regulations 2018.

Interpretation

2. In these Regulations—

“Regulations of 2012” means the European Union (Biofuel Sustainability Criteria) Regulations 2012 ( S.I. No. 33 of 2012 );

“Regulations of 2014” means the European Union (Renewable Energy) Regulations 2014 ( S.I. No. 483 of 2014 ).

Amendment of Regulation 2 of Regulations of 2014

3. Regulation 2(1) of the Regulations of 2014 is amended—

(a) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘aerothermal energy’ means energy stored in the form of heat in the ambient air;

‘agricultural, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry residues’ means residues that are directly generated by agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry excluding residues from related industries or processing;

‘bioliquids’ means liquid fuel for energy purposes other than for transport, including electricity and heating and cooling, produced from biomass;

‘energy from renewable sources’ means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar, aerothermal, geothermal, hydrothermal and ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogases;

‘geothermal energy’ means energy stored in the form of heat beneath the surface of solid earth;

‘hydrothermal energy’ means energy stored in the form of heat in surface water;

‘ligno-cellulosic material’ means material composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose such as biomass sourced from forests, woody energy crops and forest-based industries residues and wastes;

‘low indirect land-use change-risk biofuels and bioliquids’ means biofuels and bioliquids, the feedstocks of which were produced within schemes which reduce the displacement of production for purposes other than for making biofuels and bioliquids and which were produced in accordance with the sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioliquids set out in Schedule 3;

‘non-food cellulosic material’ means feedstocks mainly composed of cellulose and hemicellulose, and having a lower lignin content than ligno-cellulosic material and includes food and feed crop residues (such as straw, stover, husks and shells), grassy energy crops with a low starch content (such as ryegrass, switchgrass, miscanthus, giant cane and cover crops before and after main crops), industrial residues (including from food and feed crops after vegetal oils, sugars, starches and protein have been extracted), and material from biowaste;

‘processing residue’ means a substance that is not the end product or products that a production process directly seeks to produce and is not a primary aim of the production process and the process has not been deliberately modified to produce it;

‘renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin’ means liquid or gaseous fuels other than biofuels whose energy content comes from renewable energy sources other than biomass, and which are used in transport;

‘starch-rich crops’ means crops comprising mainly cereals (regardless of whether only the grains are used, or the whole plant, such as in the case of green maize, is used), tubers and root crops (such as potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, cassava and yams), and corm crops (such as taro and cocoyam);

‘waste’ means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard within the meaning of section 4(1) of the Waste Management Act 1996 (No. 10 of 1996) excluding any substances that have been intentionally modified or contaminated to meet that definition;”,

and

(b) by the substitution for the definition of “Directive” of the following:

“ ‘Directive’ means Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 20091 as amended by Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 20152;”.

Amendment of Regulation 18 of Regulations of 2014

4. Regulation 18 of the Regulations of 2014 is amended by the insertion after paragraph (2) of the following paragraph:

“(3) The competent authority for a support scheme or a renewable energy obligation in relation to bioliquids shall, in order to minimise the risk of single consignments of bioliquids being claimed more than once in the European Union including in the State, endeavour to strengthen cooperation with other Member States, the Commission and with voluntary schemes established under Article 18 of the Directive, including, where appropriate, exchanging data.”

Amendment of Regulation 21 of Regulations of 2014

5. Regulation 21 of the Regulations of 2014 is amended—

(a) in paragraph (1)(b) by the substitution of “the examination procedure” for “the advisory procedure”, and

(b) in paragraph (1)(c) by the substitution of “the examination procedure” for “the advisory procedure”.

Amendment of Schedule 1 of Regulations of 2014

6. Schedule 1 of the Regulations of 2014 is amended—

(a) in Part (A) by the insertion after the final subparagraph in paragraph 1 of the following:

“For the purpose of compliance with the national target in respect of the State referred to in Article 3(1) of, and Part A of Annex I to, the Directive, the maximum joint contribution from biofuels and bioliquids produced from cereal and other starch-rich crops, sugars and oil crops and from crops grown as main crops primarily for energy purposes on agricultural land shall not be more than the energy quantity corresponding to the maximum contribution as set out in paragraphs (d) and (e) of Part (B) of this Schedule.”,

(b) in Part (B) by the substitution for paragraphs (a) to (d) of the following paragraphs:

“(a) For the calculation of the denominator, that is the total amount of energy consumed in transport, only petrol, diesel, biofuels consumed in road and rail transport, and electricity, including electricity used for the production of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin, shall be taken into account;

(b) without prejudice to paragraphs (d) and (e) and to the measurement of compliance of energy from renewable sources with the requirements of the Directive and these Regulations, for the calculation of the numerator, that is the amount of energy from renewable sources consumed in transport, all types of energy from renewable sources consumed in all forms of transport shall be taken into account;

(c)(i) for the calculation of the contribution from electricity produced from renewable sources and consumed in all types of electric vehicles and for the production of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b), the SEAI shall use the share of electricity from renewable energy sources in the State as measured two years before the year in question;

(ii) for the calculation of the electricity from renewable energy sources consumed by electrified rail transport, that consumption shall be considered to be 2.5 times the energy content of the input of electricity from renewable energy sources;

(iii) for the calculation of the electricity from renewable energy sources consumed by electric road vehicles for the purposes of the calculation referred to in paragraph (b), that consumption shall be considered to be 5 times the energy content of the input of...