Europe passes bill to kickstart clean tech manufacturing, to come in force from June

Europe has cleared the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), its attempt to counter the US Inflation Reduction Act and China’s clean tech dominance, while kickstarting clean energy production across the continent. The NZIA must now be signed by the presidents of the European Parliament and the European Council, and is likely to come into force from June or early July.

The law calls on European nations to produce 40 percent of the clean tech equipment they consume across renewable energy such as:  

• Solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies
• Onshore and offshore renewable technologies
• Battery/storage technologies
• Heat pumps and geothermal energy technologies
• Electrolysers and fuel cells
• Sustainable Biogas/Biomethane technologies
• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies
• Grid technologies 
• Electrolyzers 
• Other decarbonizing technologies such as carbon capture

The NZIA also proposes streamlining permits for projects that boost EU manufacturing of clean energy equipment: The continent also aims to achieve 15 percent global production of such equipment by 2040. The new law will require public authorities such as governments and local bodies that are purchasing clean tech products to base their choices not just on price, but with a 30 percent weightage to the product’s “sustainability and resilience”. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement: “With the Net-Zero Industry Act, the EU has now a regulatory environment that allows us to scale up clean technologies manufacturing quickly. The Act creates the best conditions for those sectors that are crucial for us to reach net-zero by 2050. Demand is growing in Europe and globally, and we are now equipped to meet more of this demand with European supply.”