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(3) ‘geothermal energy’ means energy stored in the form of heat beneath the surface of solid earth;

(4) ‘gross final consumption of energy’ means the energy commodities delivered for energy purposes to industry, transport, households, services including public services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the consumption of electricity and heat by the energy branch for electricity and heat production, and losses of electricity and heat in distribution and transmission;

(5) ‘support scheme’ means any instrument, scheme or mechanism applied by a Member State, or a group of Member States, that promotes the use of energy from renewable sources by reducing the cost of that energy, increasing the price at which it can be sold, or increasing, by means of a renewable energy obligation or otherwise, the volume of such energy purchased, including but not restricted to, investment aid, tax exemptions or reductions, tax refunds, renewable energy obligation support schemes including those using green certificates, and direct price support schemes including feed-in tariffs and sliding or fixed premium payments;

(6) ‘renewable energy obligation’ means a support scheme requiring energy producers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their production, requiring energy suppliers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their supply, or requiring energy consumers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their consumption, including schemes under which such requirements may be fulfilled by using green certificates;

(7) ‘financial instrument’ means a financial instrument as defined in point (29) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(8) ‘SME’ means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in Article 2 of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC ();

(9) ‘waste heat and cold’ means unavoidable heat or cold generated as by-product in industrial or power generation installations, or in the tertiary sector, which would be dissipated unused in air or water without access to a district heating or cooling system, where a cogeneration process has been used or will be used or where cogeneration is not feasible;

(9a) ‘renewables acceleration area’ means a specific location or area, whether on land, sea or inland waters, which a Member State designated as particularly suitable for the installation of renewable energy plants;

(9b) ‘solar energy equipment’ means equipment that converts energy from the sun into thermal or electrical energy, in particular solar thermal and solar photovoltaic equipment;

(10) ‘repowering’ means renewing power plants that produce renewable energy, including the full or partial replacement of installations or operation systems and equipment for the purposes of replacing capacity or increasing the efficiency or capacity of the installation;

(11) ‘distribution system operator’ means an operator as defined in point (6) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/72/EC and in point (6) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(12) ‘guarantee of origin’ means an electronic document which has the sole function of providing evidence to a final customer that a given share or quantity of energy was produced from renewable sources;

(13) ‘residual energy mix’ means the total annual energy mix for a Member State, excluding the share covered by cancelled guarantees of origin;

(14) ‘renewables self-consumer’ means a final customer operating within its premises located within confined boundaries or, where permitted by a Member State, within other premises, who generates renewable electricity for its own consumption, and who may store or sell self-generated renewable electricity, provided that, for a non-household renewables self-consumer, those activities do not constitute its primary commercial or professional activity;

(14a) ‘bidding zone’ means a bidding zone as defined in Article 2, point (65), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(14b) ‘innovative renewable energy technology’ means renewable energy generation technology that improves, in at least one way, comparable state-of-the-art renewable energy technology or that renders renewable energy technology that is not fully commercialised or that involves a clear degree of risk exploitable;

(14c) ‘smart metering system’ means a smart metering system as defined in Article 2, point (23), of Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(14d) ‘recharging point’ means a recharging point as defined in Article 2, point (48), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(14e) ‘market participant’ means a market participant as defined in Article 2, point (25), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;

(14f) ‘electricity market’ means electricity markets as defined in Article 2, point (9), of Directive (EU) 2019/944;

(14g) ‘domestic battery’ means a stand-alone rechargeable battery of rated capacity greater than 2 kwh, which is suitable for installation and use in a domestic environment;

(14h) ‘electric vehicle battery’ means an electric vehicle battery as defined in Article 3(1), point (14), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(14i) ‘industrial battery’ means an industrial battery as defined in Article 3(1), point (13), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

(14j) ‘state of health’ means state of health as defined in Article 3(1), point (28), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

(14k) ‘state of charge’ means state of charge as defined in Article 3(1), point (27), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

(14l) ‘power set point’ means the dynamic information held in a battery’s management system prescribing the electric power settings at which the battery should optimally operate during a recharging or a discharging operation, so that its state of health and operational use are optimised;

(14m) ‘smart recharging’ means a recharging operation in which the intensity of electricity delivered to the battery is adjusted dynamically, on the basis of information received through electronic communication;

(14n) ‘regulatory authority’ means a regulatory authority as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;

(14o) ‘bi-directional recharging’ means bi-directional recharging as defined in Article 2, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804;

(14p) ‘normal power recharging point’ means a normal power recharging point as defined in Article 2, point (37), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804;

(14q) ‘renewable energy purchase agreement’ means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable energy directly from a producer, which encompasses, but is not limited to, renewables power purchase agreements and renewables heating and cooling purchase agreements;

(15) ‘jointly acting renewables self-consumers’ means a group of at least two jointly acting renewables self-consumers in accordance with point (14) who are located in the same building or multi-apartment block;

(16) ‘renewable energy community’ means a legal entity:

(a) which, in accordance with the applicable national law, is based on open and voluntary participation, is autonomous, and is effectively controlled by shareholders or members that are located in the proximity of the renewable energy projects that are owned and developed by that legal entity;

(b) the shareholders or members of which are natural persons, SMEs or local authorities, including municipalities;

(c) the primary purpose of which is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits for its shareholders or members or for the local areas where it operates, rather than financial profits;

(17) ‘renewables power purchase agreement’ means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable electricity directly from an electricity producer;

(18) ‘peer-to-peer trading’ of renewable energy means the sale of renewable energy between market participants by means of a contract with pre-determined conditions governing the automated execution and settlement of the transaction, either directly between market participants or indirectly through a certified third-party market participant, such as an aggregator. The right to conduct peer-to-peer trading shall be without prejudice to the rights and obligations of the parties involved as final customers, producers, suppliers or aggregators;

(18a) ‘industry’ means undertakings and products that fall under sections B, C, and F and under section J, division (63) of the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE REV.2), as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council ();

(18b) ‘non-energy purpose’ means the use of fuels as raw materials in an industrial process, rather than to produce energy;

(19) ‘district heating’ or ‘district cooling’ means the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids, from central or decentralised sources of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites, for the use of space or process heating or cooling;

(20) ‘efficient district heating and cooling’ means efficient district heating and cooling as defined in point (41) of Article 2 of Directive 2012/27/EU;

(21) ‘high-efficiency cogeneration’ means high-efficiency cogeneration as defined in point (34) of Article 2 of Directive 2012/27/EU;

(22) ‘energy performance certificate’ means energy performance certificate as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of Directive 2010/31/EU;

(22a) ‘renewable fuels’ means biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin;

(22b) ‘energy efficiency first’ means energy efficiency first as defined in Article 2, point (18), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999;

(23) ‘waste’ means waste as defined in point (1) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/98/EC, excluding substances that have been intentionally modified or contaminated in order to meet this definition;

(24) ‘biomass’ means the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from biological origin from agriculture, including vegetal and animal substances, from forestry and related industries, including fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fraction of waste, including industrial and municipal waste of biological origin;

(25) ‘agricultural biomass’ means biomass produced from agriculture;

(26) ‘forest biomass’ means biomass produced from forestry;

(27) ‘biomass fuels’ means gaseous and solid fuels produced from biomass;

(28) ‘biogas’ means gaseous fuels produced from biomass;

(29) ‘biowaste’ means biowaste as defined in point (4) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/98/EC;

(30) ‘sourcing area’ means the geographically defined area from which the forest biomass feedstock is sourced, from which reliable and independent information is available and where conditions are sufficiently homogeneous to evaluate the risk of the sustainability and legality characteristics of the forest biomass;