Recital 24

(24)The evaluation has also shown that the urban wastewater treatment sector offers the opportunity to significantly reduce its own energy consumption and to produce renewable energy, for example by better use of the available surfaces in urban wastewater treatment plants for solar energy production or by producing biogas from sludge as well as by heat or kinetic energy or other renewable energy sources. The evaluation also illustrated that, without clear legal obligations, only partial progress can be expected in that sector. In this context, Member States should be required to ensure that the total annual energy used by all urban wastewater treatment plants on their territory treating a load of 10 000 p.e. and above does not exceed the production of energy from renewable sources as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹² , by those urban wastewater treatment plants. In order to take into account the specificities of each urban wastewater treatment plant, optimise the investments needed and provide for the required flexibility to reach the energy neutrality objective, while ensuring that the potential for renewable energy production and for energy savings is fully achieved, that objective should be met at national level and not for each treatment plant. All renewable energies produced by the urban wastewater treatment plants operators or their owners, whether on-site or off-site, such as hydraulic, solar, thermal, wind energy or biogas, should be taken into account. That objective should be progressively met with interim targets by 31 December 2045. It should be possible to purchase a limited amount of non-fossil energy, not directly linked to urban wastewater treatment activities, from external sources in 2040 and 2045, through the use of a derogation linked to conditions. Renewable energy generated by or on behalf of the owners or operators of the urban wastewater treatment plant should not comprise purchased renewable energy. Reaching that energy neutrality objective will contribute in particular to reducing the avoidable GHG emissions from the urban wastewater treatment sector, while supporting the achievement of the 2050 climate neutrality objectives and related national and Union objectives, such as the objectives set out in Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹³ . However, initiatives to achieve energy neutrality should not lead to an increase in emissions of methane or nitrous oxide. In line with Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Member States should facilitate permit granting procedures for renewable energy projects required to reach energy neutrality of the urban wastewater treatment sector. Encouraging EU-based biogas or solar energy production while enhancing energy efficiency measures in line with the Energy Efficiency First principle defined in Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁴ and making an optimal use of digitalisation, which means taking utmost account of cost-efficient energy efficiency measures in shaping energy policy and making relevant investment decisions, will also help reduce the Union’s energy dependence, one of the objectives expressed in the communication from the Commission of 18 May 2022 entitled ‘REPower EU Plan’. It is also in line with Directive (EU) 2018/844 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁵ and with Directive (EU) 2018/2001 in which urban wastewater treatment sites are identified as ‘go-to’ areas for renewables, meaning a location designated as particularly suitable for the installation of plants for the production of energy from renewable sources. In order to reach the objective of energy neutrality via optimal measures for each urban wastewater treatment plant and for the collection system, Member States should ensure that energy audits, as defined in Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁶ , are carried out every four years. Those audits should also include an identification of the potential for reduction of energy consumption, cost-effective recovery and use of waste heat, either on-site or via a district energy system, or cost-effective use or production of renewable energy following the criteria set out in Annex VI to Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁷ .