FantasticSearch

1. Member States shall ensure that information on support measures is made available to all relevant actors, such as consumers including low-income, vulnerable consumers, renewables self-consumers, renewable energy communities, builders, installers, architects, suppliers of heating, cooling and electricity equipment and systems, and suppliers of vehicles compatible with the use of renewable energy and of intelligent transport systems.

2. Member States shall ensure that information on the net benefits, cost and energy efficiency of equipment and systems for the use of heating, cooling and electricity from renewable sources is made available either by the supplier of the equipment or system or by the competent authorities.

3. Member States shall ensure that their certification schemes or equivalent qualification schemes are available for installers and designers of all forms of renewable heating and cooling systems in buildings, industry and agriculture, for installers of solar photovoltaic systems, including energy storage, and for installers of recharging points enabling demand response. Those schemes may take into account existing schemes and structures as appropriate and shall be based on the criteria laid down in Annex IV. Each Member State shall recognise the certification awarded by other Member States in accordance with those criteria. Member States shall set up a framework to ensure a sufficient number of trained and qualified installers of the technology referred to in the first subparagraph to service the growth of renewable energy required to achieve the targets set out in this Directive.

To achieve such a sufficient number of installers and designers, Member States shall ensure that sufficient training programmes leading to certification or qualification covering renewable heating and cooling technology, solar photovoltaic systems, including energy storage, recharging points enabling demand response, and the latest innovative solutions thereof, are made available provided that they are compatible with their certification schemes or equivalent qualification schemes. Member States shall put in place measures to promote participation in such training programmes, in particular by small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed. Member States may put in place voluntary agreements with the relevant technology providers and vendors to train sufficient numbers of installers, which may be based on estimates of sales, in the latest innovative solutions and technology available on the market. If Member States identify a substantial gap between available and necessary number of trained and qualified installers, they shall take measures to address that gap.

4. Member States shall make information on certification schemes or equivalent qualification schemes referred to in paragraph 3 available to the public. Member States shall also make available to the public, in a transparent and easily accessible manner, a regularly updated list of installers who are certified or qualified in accordance with paragraph 3.

5. Member States shall ensure that guidance is made available to all relevant actors, in particular to planners and architects so that they are able properly to consider the optimal combination of energy from renewable sources, of high-efficiency technologies, and of district heating and cooling when planning, designing, building and renovating industrial, commercial or residential areas.

6. Member States, where appropriate with the participation of local and regional authorities, shall develop suitable information, awareness-raising, guidance or training programmes in order to inform citizens of how to exercise their rights as active customers, and of the benefits and practicalities, including technical and financial aspects, of developing and using energy from renewable sources, including by renewables self-consumption or in the framework of renewable energy communities.