Slovenia gets new law on renewables – heating boilers on oil, coal banned from 2023

The new Act on the Promotion of the Use of Renewable Energy Sources introduces a ban on the installation of heating boilers for fuel oil, and coal from 2023, and envisages a two-year deadline for issuing permits for power plants, and new rules for prosumers and self-consumption.

The goal of the new law on renewables is to transpose the legislative acts of the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, namely the Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and part of the Directive 2012/27/EC on energy efficiency). The law has been adopted by the National Assembly and now it has become valid.

The law regulates guarantees of origin, self-consumption, energy communities, and support schemes

The law regulates the implementation of national and municipal policies for the use of renewables. It sets goals and measures and financing tools. It also regulates guarantees of origin, self-consumption, energy communities, and support schemes, the Ministry of Infrastructure said.

The law determines a permanent minimum of 25% for the share of renewables in the gross final consumption of energy, while the overall target for 2030 of 27% and intermediate targets by each sector were set earlier in the national energy and climate plan.

In the heating and cooling sector, the document sets a target of a 1.3-percentage-point increase in the share of renewables per year. One of the measures is a ban on the installation of heating boilers for fuel oil, and coal from 2023. A target of increasing the share of renewables by one percentage point per year is set for district heating systems, alongside the obligation to prepare sustainability plans and to enable customers to disconnect from the system due to energy inefficiency from 2025.

All permits for the construction of power plants must be issued within two years

There is also a time limit for issuing permits, a maximum of two years, and for production facilities of up to 150 kW, one year. A contact point must be set up to assist the investor in obtaining all permits, lawmakers said.

The law introduces significant changes in self-consumption. Prosumers will have to pay a network fee for all the energy taken from the grid, and at the same time, they will get paid for the surpluses delivered to the grid.