European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: opportunities in the Energy Sector Victoria Jane Primhak

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European Agricultural Fund for Rural
Development opportunities in the Energy Sector
Victoria Jane Primhak
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• EAFRD 6 Union Priorities
• Priority 1 Fostering knowledge transfer and
  innovation in agriculture, forestry,
• and rural areas
• Priority 2 Enhancing farm viability and
  competitiveness of all types of
• agriculture in all regions and promoting
  innovative farm technologies and the
• sustainable management of forest
• Priority 3 Promoting food chain organisation,
  including processing and
• marketing of agricultural products, animal
  welfare and risk management in
• agriculture
• Priority 4 Restoring, preserving and enhancing
  ecosystems related to agriculture
• and forestry
• Priority 5 Promoting resource efficiency and
  supporting the shift towards a low
• carbon and climate resilient economy in
  agriculture, food and forestry sectors
• Priority 6 Promoting social inclusion, poverty
  reduction and economic
• development in rural areas

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EAFRD Priority 5 Promoting resource efficiency
and supporting the shift towards a low carbon and
climate resilient economy in agriculture, food
and forestry sectors

• Focus Areas
• 5 b Increasing efficiency in energy use in
  agriculture and food processing
• 5 c Facilitating the supply and use of renewable
  sources of energy, of by-products, wastes and
  residues and of other non-food raw material, for
  the purposes of the bio-economy
• 5 d Reducing green house gas and ammonia
  emissions from agriculture
• 5 e Fostering carbon conservation and
  sequestration in agriculture and forestry

• Thematic Objective 4
• Supporting the shift
• towards a low-carbon
• economy in all sectors

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• Measure 4 Investments in physical assets
  (Art.17)
• Renewable energy production
• Investments in renewable energy plants
• - Energy produced for self-consumption
• - Energy sold outside the farm holding
  (general state aid rules apply)
• Input for energy must be an Annex 1 product

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• Measure 6 Farm and business development (Art.19)
• Business start-up aid for non-agricultural
  activities
• in rural areas
• Construction, re-construction or establishment of
  facilities for various activities such as
  electricity, energy, gas, steam and hot water
  supply businesses renewable energy producers and
  inter-linked activities, etc.

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• Energy Efficiency requirements MS shall
  establish the minimum criteria for energy
  efficiency
• Compliance with minimum energy efficiency
  standards for investments in renewable energy
  infrastructure where such standards exist at
  national level
• Investments in installations for the primary
  purpose of electricity production from biomass
  must utilize a minimum percentage of heat energy
• Thresholds for the maximum proportions of food
  and feed crops (excluding waste, residues and
  by-products) used for bioenergy production and in
  particular biofuels, for different types of
  installations must be established at MS level
• Support to bioenergy projects shall be limited to
  bioenergy meeting the applicable sustainability
  criteria at Union level
• Limitation on the use of food and feed crops for
  bioenergy production apply to individual
  installations(e.g. max of silage maize for
  biogas installations) considering the limits to
  the overall contribution of bioenergy derived
  from food and feed crops in MS national renewable
  energy targets

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• Measure 7 Basic services and village renewal in
  rural areas (Art.20)
• Investments in the creation, improvement or
  expansion of all types of small scale
  infrastructure, including investments in
  renewable energy and energy saving, e.g.
• - construction of additional facilities to
  produce and use regenerative energy in rural
  municipalities (e.g. creating district heating
  networks to use the process heat of bio-energy
  plants)
• - setting up of distribution networks for
  heat/electric/gas power from biomass or other
  renewable sources
• In the case of investments in renewable energy,
  MA may derogate from limits in scale.

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• Measure 7 requirements
• Compliance with the minimum standards for energy
  efficiency for supported investments in renewable
  energy infrastructure
• Investments in installations, the primary
  purpose of which is electricity production from
  biomass, are not be eligible for support unless a
  minimum percentage of heat energy is utilised
• Support to bioenergy projects shall be limited to
  bioenergy meeting the applicable sustainability
  criteria laid down in Union legislation
•  State Aid rules are applicable (not under Bock
  Exemption)
• The installations of small hydropower plants
  should not lead to worsening of ecological status
  of the water course as understood by WFD and to
  lowering the connectivity of the water course
• For renewable energy installations based on
  biomass, MSs should ensure that related projects
  do not lead to unsustainable or excessive
  exploitation of forest resources and soil organic
  matter depletion. They should ensure maintaining
  enough amount of dead wood in the forest

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• Measure 8.6 Investments in forest technologies,
  processing, mobilising and marketing of forest
  products (Art.26)
• Development and rationalization of the marketing
  and processing of
• wood, including investments in machinery and/or
  equipment related
• to felling, dismembering, stripping, cutting up,
  chipping, storing as
• well as protective treatments, drying of wood and
  other working
• operations prior to industrial sawing of wood at
  a sawing mill,
• including production of material for energy
  generation (wood
• biomass).
• RDP shall define size of forest holding above
  which there must be a
• Forest Management Plan or equivalent.

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LEADER Measure 19

• LEADER can serve any of the 6 Union priorities
• for Rural Development.
• The RDP will specify the relating focus areas to
• which LEADER could potentially contribute to.
• The Local Development Strategies selected will
• have to contribute to the focus areas identified
• for the implementation of LEADER.
• An example Contribute to FA 5C through
  support to renewable/low energy local initiatives
  

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LEADER Measure 19

• Sub measure "Preparatory support"
• Sub measure "Implementation of operations under
  the CLLD strategy operations must contribute
  to the objectives of the LDS
• Sub-measure "Preparation and implementation of
  cooperation activities of the local action group"
• Sub measure "Running costs and animation"

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• Thank you for your attention