Proposition 54K3581

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 29 avril 1999 relative à l'organisation du marché de l'électricité en vue d'introduire une procédure de mise en concurrence pour la construction et l'exploitation d'installations de production dans les espaces marins sous la juridiction de la Belgique et ratifiant l'arrêté royal du 11 février 2019, modifiant l'arrêté royal du 16 juillet 2002 relatif à l'établissement de mécanismes visant la promotion de l'électricité produite à partir de sources d'énergie renouvelables.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Leen Dierick, Griet Smaers
MR Benoît Friart, Damien Thiéry
Open Vld Frank Wilrycx

Submission date

Feb. 20, 2019

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

service concession electrical energy energy policy soft energy

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA MR VB

Abstained from voting

PVDA | PTB

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Discussion ¶

April 4, 2019 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

The rapporteur is Mr Wollants. We must also have the report of the committee, in which this proposal has been discussed afterwards. Mr Wollants is also the rapporteur: you are given the floor.

Mr. Speaker, our committee has indeed discussed the proposal submitted, among others, by Mr. Wilrycx, Mrs. Dierick and Mr. Friart. In short, it is a proposal that aims to concrete the increase in investment in renewable energy, in particular with regard to investments in offshore wind energy.

By summer, 1.6 gigawatt of offshore wind power will be operational. This should rise to 2.3 gigawatt by 2020 and further rise to 4 gigawatt by 2026. Meanwhile, through the marine spatial plan, an additional zone has been defined by the competent Minister Philippe De Backer in order to allow that expansion to take place effectively. At the same time, with the adjustment of the support schemes of the last parks that have been approved, it has also opted to tend from now on. Thus, the old system in terms of concessions and the like is no longer in operation, but a different path is taken. This can be obtained, among other things, on the basis of experience abroad. In this way, it can be ensured that the support cost price can be as low as possible for those types of parks.

In the discussion in the committee, a number of people, including Ms. Lalieux of the PS, pointed out that the share of renewable energy must indeed increase and that initiatives need to be taken in order to do so. It has also been cited, among others by myself, that the design pushes a number of pistes forward to look at how that can happen. However, this is not a limiting list. The exact system for the auction of the capacity has not yet been established. Mr. Wilrycx devoted part of his argument to this, namely to ensure that a lower density of those wind farm parks would also benefit the efficiency so that with the correct auction method, the cost price also decreases.

As a result, the committee unanimously approved the bill. We unanimously agreed to the bill.

This afternoon there was a committee on the proposal. It was specifically about supplementing the bill with a provision on the ratification of a royal decree, taken on 11 February 2019 by the government. It was related to the end-to-end contact on the North Sea.

At the same time, there must at least be agreements between the windmills parks and Elia. You know that we have opted for the Modular Offshore Grid, namely the idea that they should not install the cables to the coast but to a central connection point. For this, agreements must be made. Responsibilities are also linked.

The committee then discussed an amendment to ensure that the royal decree in question can be ratified at this time. It gives more certainty to the wind farm operators so that things can hopefully be realized faster.

This amendment was also unanimously approved, so that the committee can repeatedly forward it to the plenary session.

So I rounded up my report.

Mr Wollants, you now have the word for the presentation on behalf of your group.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, it is absolutely a good thing that we deal with the case in a different way than in the past. You know that, when it comes to the concession agreement from the past, the amount of support has never been a factor of importance.

At that time, concessions were granted specifically based on the capacity that could be realized and the way it would be realized. However, the exact height was not a factor of importance in choosing who would eventually receive the concession.

It is absolutely a good thing that we start in the other direction, namely to ensure that the company that the cheapest and with the least support can realize something and something, that realization may do. This is in the interests of consumers and our ⁇ , as this can reduce support.

You know that for the current parks, as they are designated today, it is about a little more than 13 billion euros in subsidies over the lifetime, which ultimately must be borne by citizens and ⁇ .

We are very pleased that it has remained limited to 13 billion euros over the years. You know that the Michel I government has been able to reduce the subsidies by approximately 4.5 to 5 billion euros through negotiations. I think we can go even further into that.

In practice, we find that today in some countries wind turbine parks are built without subsidies. However, it should be noted that this is done without building guarantee. If the electricity prices are not correct, those parks will not be built. We believe that there are still possibilities in this regard.

I have understood that recently in the Netherlands a tender has been issued for a wind farm in which even the other direction was taken. In fact, the tender included that the operator must pay rent for the seabed on which those mills come and this after that same operator has already paid for the construction of those mills there. Until now, an operator was always paid to build those windmills.

I think this is an interesting evolution. This bill does not exclude such a procedure. I think it is a good thing to continue this way and we will therefore support this proposal.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out quickly that with the six wind farms in the North Sea, with a total production capacity of 1 500 megawatts, Belgium is now in the top European of the offshore wind industry.

The development of the offshore wind industry in our country is the result of the will of visionary Belgian companies and a policy in favor of wind turbines. Ten years ago, the first wind farm in the Belgian North Sea was set up in a first pilot phase. Today, with the sixth park, we have entered a final phase of construction. As a result, from the summer, 318 wind turbines will be active in the North Sea.

I wanted to speak tonight to point out that the government has made the development of offshore wind power a priority – I said a priority. It has designated new wind energy zones in the marine space planning plan for the period 2020-2026. In total, this will represent, with these new wind turbines, a production of 4 gigawatts of green energy by 2030, or the equivalent of four nuclear power plants.

The text presented today is crucial for the future of Belgian offshore wind power. An auction procedure will be established, which should reduce costs for consumers. Through the use of the tender procedure, in combination with the placing on the market of larger parcels, the objective is to significantly reduce the cost of support for the development of future offshore electricity production in Belgium.

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, as part of our European renewable energy obligations, it is important to continue on our launch and to take all possible steps to enable the maximum development of offshore wind power in our country.

Mr. Speaker, this text is very important because it positions Belgium – which was already a pioneer – as the first class in terms of offshore wind turbines, whose profitability by charge rate is very interesting for the future energy mix.

You know, since we talked about this in the text on the capacity remuneration mechanism, that the intermittent adjustment of these means of production of electricity to gas-pilotable capacities constitutes a necessary phase for the exit of nuclear power in this country. We had commitments to meet for 2020 as part of the burden sharing 2013-2020, which led the federal to install at least a capacity of 2.2 gigawatts in the North Sea by 2020. This is now practically done. So we keep our promises.

For the 2030 target, we have still succeeded, after heavily negotiating with my colleague Philippe De Backer to reduce consumer support for offshore wind farms to complete their closure during the period 2013-2020. This reduction reached €4 billion, so we prevented the consumer’s invoice from increasing completely unregulated without our intervention. Thus, we are able to attain two objectives simultaneously: the development of renewable energy, while offering the citizen an affordable price for clean energy.

Thus, for the period 2021-2030, through this legal framework, we intend to send the signal that offshore wind farms operators can submit their project through a public procurement procedure, so that the price is as low as possible and that the citizen does not have to provide exorbitant support to the development of this sector.

The goal is an additional capacity that will allow all our parks to have, in power installed in the North Sea for all Belgians, the equivalent of four nuclear power plants, which does not mean that in production, it is the same thing. We always make mistakes, but we need to correct them. Production compared to nuclear power plants is twice as low as the average wind blows only 40% of the time in a year. However, it is still a remarkable power in terms of producing clean electricity for our country.