EU's Net-Zero Industry Act Officially Adopted, Takes Effect in One Month.
On May 27, the governments of the European Union formally adopted the Net Zero Industry Act, which requires the EU to produce 40 percent of its solar modules, wind turbines, heat pumps, and other clean technologies locally in order to help European industry compete with the U.S. and China.
The Net Zero Industry Act, which will enter into force in June or early July, has been signed by the Presidents of the European Parliament and the Council and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The purpose of the act is to improve the EU's local clean energy manufacturing capacity, and get rid of dependence on China's photovoltaic imports, as well as to deal with the threat of the U.S. “Inflation Reduction Act”.
Currently, the EU's locally produced solar modules account for only 3% of the market, and the EU's installed photovoltaic capacity relies heavily on Chinese imports.
Not only that, but Europe's indigenous PV manufacturers are moving out, mainly to the United States. The EU believes that the $369 billion in green subsidies in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act will attract European producers to relocate capacity to the United States.
In addition to the 40% target for 2030 for indigenous manufacturing of the clean energy products it needs (including solar PV panels, wind turbines, cells, etc.). The act also proposes a specific EU carbon capture and storage goal of achieving an annual injection capacity of at least 50 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2030.
The Net Zero Industry Act was introduced in March last year and was formally passed after 14 months and many rounds of discussions.
The details of the process are as follows:
In March 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Net Zero Industry Act to accelerate the green transformation of industry.
On December 7, 2023, the Council of the European Union issued a statement saying that a consensus position had been reached on the draft Net Zero Industry Act .
On February 6, 2024, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Net Zero Industry Act, which aims to facilitate the industrial deployment of the net zero technologies needed by the EU to meet its climate targets and to strengthen the EU's advantages in industrial green technologies.
On May 27, the EU adopted the Net Zero Industry Act.
Source: SOLARZOOM