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1. By 21 February 2026, Member States shall ensure that competent authorities adopt one or more plans designating, as a sub-set of the areas referred to in Article 15b(1), renewables acceleration areas for one or more types of renewable energy sources. Member States may exclude biomass combustion and hydropower plants. In those plans, competent authorities shall:

(a) designate sufficiently homogeneous land, inland water, and sea areas where the deployment of a specific type or specific types of renewable energy sources is not expected to have a significant environmental impact, in view of the particularities of the selected area, while:

(i) giving priority to artificial and built surfaces, such as rooftops and facades of buildings, transport infrastructure and their direct surroundings, parking areas, farms, waste sites, industrial sites, mines, artificial inland water bodies, lakes or reservoirs and, where appropriate, urban waste water treatment sites, as well as degraded land not usable for agriculture;

(ii) excluding Natura 2000 sites and areas designated under national protection schemes for nature and biodiversity conservation, major bird and marine mammal migratory routes as well as other areas identified on the basis of sensitivity maps and the tools referred to in the point (iii), except for artificial and built surfaces located in those areas such as rooftops, parking areas or transport infrastructure;

(iii) using all appropriate and proportionate tools and datasets to identify the areas where the renewable energy plants would not have a significant environmental impact, including wildlife sensitivity mapping, while taking into account the data available in the context of the development of a coherent Natura 2000 network, both as regards habitat types and species under Council Directive 92/43/EEC (), as well as birds and sites protected under Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(b) establish appropriate rules for the renewables acceleration areas on effective mitigation measures to be adopted for the installation of renewable energy plants and co-located energy storage, as well as assets necessary for the connection of such plants and storage to the grid, in order to avoid the adverse environmental impact that may arise or, where that is not possible, to significantly reduce it, where appropriate ensuring that appropriate mitigation measures are applied in a proportionate and timely manner to ensure compliance with the obligations laid down in Article 6(2) and Article 12(1) of Directive 92/43/EEC, Article 5 of Directive 2009/147/EEC and Article 4(1), point (a)(i), of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council () and to avoid deterioration and achieve good ecological status or good ecological potential in accordance with Article 4(1), point (a), of Directive 2000/60/EC.

4. By 21 May 2024, Member States may declare as renewables acceleration areas specific areas which have already been designated to be areas suitable for an accelerated deployment of one or more types of renewable energy technology, provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(a) such areas are outside Natura 2000 sites, areas designated under national protection schemes for nature and biodiversity conservation and identified bird migratory routes;

(b) the plans identifying such areas have been the subject of a strategic environmental assessment pursuant to Directive 2001/42/EC and, where appropriate, of an assessment pursuant to Article 6(3) of Directive 92/43/EEC;

(c) the projects located in such areas implement appropriate and proportionate rules and measures to address the adverse environmental impact that may arise.

5. The competent authorities shall apply the permit-granting procedure and deadlines referred to in Article 16a to individual projects in renewables acceleration areas.

The rules referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph shall be targeted to the specificities of each identified renewables acceleration area, to the type or types of renewable energy technology to be deployed in each area and to the identified environmental impact. Compliance with the rules referred to in the first subparagraph, point (b), of this paragraph and the implementation of the appropriate mitigation measures by the individual projects shall result in the presumption that projects are not in breach of those provisions without prejudice to Article 16a(4) and (5) of this Directive. Where novel mitigation measures to prevent, to the extent possible, the killing or disturbance of species protected under Directives 92/43/EEC and 2009/147/EC, or any other environmental impact, have not been widely tested as regards their effectiveness, Member States may allow their use for one or several pilot projects for a limited time period, provided that the effectiveness of such mitigation measures is closely monitored and appropriate steps are taken immediately if they prove not to be effective.

Competent authorities shall explain in the plans designating renewables acceleration areas referred to in the first subparagraph the assessment made to identify each designated renewables acceleration area on the basis of the criteria set out in point (a) of the first subparagraph and to identify appropriate mitigation measures.

2. Before their adoption, the plans designating renewables acceleration areas shall be subject to an environmental assessment pursuant to Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (), and, if they are likely to have a significant impact on Natura 2000 sites, to the appropriate assessment pursuant to Article 6(3) of Directive 92/43/EEC.

3. Member States shall decide the size of renewables acceleration areas, in view of the specificities and requirements of the type or types of technology for which they set up renewables acceleration areas. While retaining the discretion to decide on the size of those areas, Member States shall aim to ensure that the combined size of those areas is significant and that they contribute to the achievement of the objectives set out in this Directive. The plans designating renewables acceleration areas referred to in paragraph 1, first subparagraph, of this Article shall be made publicly available and shall be reviewed periodically, as appropriate, in particular in the context of the updating of the integrated national energy and climate plans submitted pursuant to Articles 3 and 14 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.