AWS collaborates with WindEurope and Accenture to streamline wind permitting in Europe

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Accenture in collaboration with WindEurope have developed a digital permitting solution prototype for wind permitting across Europe that could significantly ease the bottleneck around the energy transition.

The companies have urged industry players to help further improve this pilot system, beta testing for the first time at the 2023 WindEurope Annual Conference. User feedback will refine the solution, so that when deployed, it can accelerate the time-to-value for wind farm developers, municipalities and local communities, the companies said.

Wind energy is a strategic industry central to Europe’s energy security strategy, and wind already meets 17% of Europe’s electricity demand today. The European Commission wants wind to be half of Europe’s electricity by 2050.

Heymi Bahar, Senior Analyst - Renewable Energy Markets and Policy at International Energy Agency (IEA) said, “The IEA has been working closely with the European Commission to provide multi-country advice on concrete measures to deliver on the RE-Power EU objective of affordable, secure and sustainable energy for Europe. 

“Complex and long permitting of renewable projects is one of the key obstacles to faster deployment. The recently revised Renewable Energy Directive gives a set of specific regulations to pave the way for faster permitting. But Member States need further, technical support to get the permits done in 2 years, as opposed to up to 10 years as it happens in some countries. The IEA looks forward to seeing the results of the testing phase of this new permitting platform. The municipalities could take advantage of this tool to optimise the permitting process and deliver permits more rapidly and easily.”

According to AWS, 80 GW of wind energy projects are stuck in a permitting process across Europe in a big challenge for the industry. The wind permitting process is highly manual and involves coordination with many permitting authorities at local, regional and national levels. In many jurisdictions, a single individual could be responsible for processing several 450-page paper permit applications, clarifying questions with developers, corralling the correct experts and collating all required cross-departmental input.

Leveraging Amazon’s distinctive “Working Backwards” innovation mechanism, the AWS, WindEurope and Accenture teams worked with permitting staff across several member states to develop a digital permitting solution.

Jakob Hasselgreen, a Senior City Planning Official in the Danish municipality of Vesthimmerlands said: “I can identify with all the pain-points when it comes to the permitting process. It was eye opening to see how existing technology can help with making the process more efficient for everyone: for me, for my colleagues, developer but also community members that I engage with to get them on board for the projects.

“If I can save mine and everyone's time by having the right system to receive, file and dispatch documents, to use templates so that I don’t have to re work information for different internal and external purposes, I would be able to do things faster and dedicate time to the most important parts of the permitting process: ensuring the project is developed with respect to my community members and biodiversity. I can't wait to pilot this in our municipality!"

The solution prototype is a single platform to help permitting authorities and developers automate workflows, streamline approvals, and provide process transparency for a faster and better outcome for all stakeholders, including the permitting agent, the wind farm developer, as well as the community member.

Malgosia Bartosik, Deputy-CEO at WindEurope, said: “More wind energy projects are needed to move towards the new EU 2030 42.5% renewables target. The new EU Renewables Directives mandates EU countries to digitalise permitting processes within two years: this is a game-changer. Now we need to equip municipalities, city planners and permitting authorities with the digital tools to deliver on this.”