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Albania Administrative Procedure on RES

, Investors

Energy sector in Albania is at a crucial point of development. Among the last most important millstone has been the submission on March 2015 to the Ecs the Progress Report on the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC as adapted by the Ministerial Council Decision 2012/04/MC-EnC. A report that asses among other the progress made in evaluating and improving administrative procedures to remove regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to the development of renewable energy (Article 22(1)e) of Directive 2009/28/EC)).

In regard, particular efforts are made to facilitate the coordination between different administrative bodies responsible for parts of the permit for a specific project. The establishment of the National Licensing Centre has been a positive step forward in creating an one‐stop shop for all licenses and permits required for a project. However, there are still some licenses or permits such as the license issued by the Energy Regulator for carrying out an activity in power sector or the construction permit issued by the local authority that are not integrated in the National Licensing Centre.

The authorizations for construction of RES installations are granted by the Council of Ministers either under the concession law requirements for hydropower plants or under the power sector law requirements for other types of RES power producers as under the biofuel law for producers of biofuel. Licenses for carrying out the activity of electricity generation from RES are issued by the Energy Regulatory Authority.

The conditions and criteria for granting an authorization for construction of a RES power plant other than hydropower plants are already contemplated in the existing power sector law  and the specific regulation approved by the Council of Ministers regulates the procedures in Albania take into account the specificities of the different renewable energy technologies.

For any RES power generator or biofuel producer an environment permit is required to be issued by the Ministry of Environment, based on an environment impact assessment. The law on the environment protection and the law on environment impact assessment require that the Ministry of Environment and local authorities cooperate during the whole process guaranteeing the public participation in any possible
decision‐making.

As to construction permit, according to the new law on territorial planning, the local authorities are responsible for issuing such a permit. The new law also stipulates that a close cooperation will be established by the National Territory Council and the National Territorial Planning Agency from one side as central government bodies and the local authorities from the other. Article 4 of the law on
territorial planning provides for that the horizontal and vertical coordination between the national and local planning authorities and the stakeholders, which helps ensure that the planning instruments are
adopted in compliance with the planning instruments enacted by the other authorities, and that help harmonize the public and private, national and local interests.

Then as reported by the above study submit to the Secretariat, it appears that there are not any unnecessary obstacles or non‐proportionate requirements related to authorization, certification
and licensing procedures applied to plants and associated transmission and distribution network infrastructure. The establishment of the National Licensing Centre has facilitated quite a lot the process of
getting a license, authorization or permit.

source: ACERC Albania

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