Approval for EU regulations on energy, maritime fuel and EV charging infrastructure

The European Commission has announced the final approval of the revised Energy Efficiency Directive, the FuelEU Maritime Regulations and the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulations, as part of the ‘Fit for 55′ package of legislation aimed at reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. 

Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation
The regulation states that for each registered BEV in a Member State, a power output of 1.3 kW must be provided by publicly accessible recharging infrastructure.

The EU is also mandating the roll out of charging infrastructure along the trans-European transport (TEN-T) network, whereby recharging stations of at least 150 kW need to be installed every 60km, with stations dedicated to heavy-duty vehicles with a minimum output of 350 kW need to be similarly deployed on the TEN-T and every 100km on the larger  TEN-T comprehensive network .

The regulation also states that Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure that serves both cars and lorries must be deployed from 2030 onwards in all urban nodes and every 200 km along the TEN-T core network, ensuring a sufficiently dense network to allow hydrogen vehicles to travel across the EU.

FuelEU Maritime Regulation
In 2021, maritime transport generated 3 to 4% of total CO2 emissions in the EU and the objective of the  FuelEU Maritime regulation is to help decarbonise the maritime sector by setting maximum limits on the yearly greenhouse gas intensity of the energy used by a ship.

Maritime regulation will ensure that the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels used by the shipping sector decreases by 2% in 2025, increasing to as much as 80% by 2050. The regulation incentivises the uptake of  renewable fuels of non-biological origin.

The new rules also include measures to mitigate air pollution emissions in ports, which is an area that has been much discussed recently.

Energy Efficiency Directive
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Commission revised the Energy Efficiency target so that the EU will have to reduce final energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030, compared to 2020.

EU countries will now be forced to to take energy efficiency into consideration in policy, planning and major investment decisions in the energy sector and beyond.

Member states will be also required to achieve new savings each year of 1.49% of final energy consumption on average, up from the current level of 0.8%. This will grow to 1.9% by the end of 2030.

The agreement includes the first ever EU definition of energy poverty and member States will be obligated to implement energy efficiency improvement measures as a priority among people affected by energy poverty.