In a press release dated 30 January 2023, the Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning announced a reduction in the time limits for issuing building permits for the deployment of renewable energies at the communal level.

Thus, building permits must be issued or rejected within 3 months for installations of:

• solar energy equipment;
• jointly used energy storage systems; and
• ground source (geothermal) heat pumps.

A tacit acceptance is provided for if there is no response from the mayor after a period of one month for the installation of solar energy equipment with a capacity less than or equal to 50kW, which corresponds to almost all photovoltaic installations in private homes.

For heat pumps, other than ground source heat pumps, the commune must make a decision within one month.

The reduced time limits do not apply in certain cases. The reasons can be:

• the protection of cultural or historical heritage; or
• national defence matters; or
• matters related to protected areas.

All decisions, negative or positive, on the above-mentioned building permits must be made public by the commune.