The European Commission has adopted four new pieces of secondary legislation and a communication relating to the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), seeking to clarify which manufacturing projects can benefit from specific provisions in the Act. The new legislation clarifies the scope of the NZIA through listing specific components for which the NZIA requirements will apply, sets rules for the inclusion of certain non-price criteria in Member State auctions for renewable energy deployment, and lists net-zero technology final products and their main specific components.
Adopted in May 2024, he NZIA is one of the three key legislative initiatives of the green deal industrial plan to enhance the competitiveness of Europe’s net-zero industry and support a rapid transition to climate neutrality. It aims to boost the industrial deployment of net-zero technologies that are needed to achieve the EU’s climate goals. Progress will be measured through the EU’s manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies (such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, batteries and heat pumps) that should reach at least 40% of the EU’s deployment needs; in addition, the EU aims to reach a 15% share of the world’s production of these technologies by 2040. Moreover, the act sets up an annual injection capacity of at least 50 MtCO2 to be achieved by 2030 in geological storage sites located in the territory of the Union. The NZIA should enter to force between June and July 2024.