Permitting requirements / process, including safety distances (external/internal)

This LAP refers to the permitting requirements. In particular it underlines if there are some requirements in terms of environmental assessment, risk assessment, safety requirements. It identifies what is the competent authority responsible for the permitting requirements, what are the different steps of the process, and what are the different kinds of permits needed by the approval authority. Finally, it shows if the process is uniform throughout the country, how much time is needed to obtain the permit, and if there are some exemptions/simplified processes.

Glossary:

A process in which an applicant files forms to a (regulatory) agency/competent authority with required narratives, maps, etc., to ensure in advance that the proposed operation will be in compliance with the applicable standards. Permitting requirements are the legal (regulations and standards) requirements.
An internal safety distance is the minimal separation distance between a potential hazard source (e.g. equipment involving dangerous substances) and an object (human, equipment or environment), which will mitigate the effect of a likely foreseeable incident and prevent a minor incident escalating into a larger incident (also known as domino effect).

Pan-European Assessment:

Subject to significant operational variance (in terms of scope of application and operationalisation of requirements), the storage of hydrogen is, generally, subject to the following requirements:
• Risk Assessments (as operationalised from the general obligations laid down in the SEVESO Directive).
• Health and Safety requirements and conformity assessment procedures, as envisioned by the ATEX Directive.
• Environmental Impact Assessment procedures, as envisioned by the SEA and EIA Directives.

Subjecting hydrogen storage to risk assessments, in accordance with the SEVESO and ATEX Directive is in line with the purpose and intention of these acts, however, the application of the EIA and SEA Directives and other environmental permitting may result in disproportionate administrative burden on project developers and economic operators wishing to bring hydrogen applications such as HRS’s and micro-CHPs to market. In addition, the process itself (involving several permits, provided by different authorities, and requiring much time and effort) imposes high costs on operators and further delays the commercial deployment of these applications.
Finally, and importantly, safety distances are, in some cases, very restrictive and can be seen as a major barrier. This is discussed in more detail in the chapter dedicated to hydrogen refuelling stations
Is it a barrier?
Yes
Type of Barrier
Regulatory gap
Assessment Severity
2
Assessment
Since specific hydrogen legislation is missing, an ad hoc safety study has to be made which is costly and time consuming.

Questions:

Question 1 What are the main requirements with their applicable regulations for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement) apart from the land use planning? Please list them including: a - What are the main regulations/requirements regarding land use plans for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement)?
a -Part of the request form is an environmental effects screening, that checks the effect of the installation on mobility, soil, water, air, noise–vibrations, biodiversity, occurrence of major calamities, immovable heritage, light/radiation and waste products
Question 1 What are the main requirements with their applicable regulations for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement) apart from the land use planning? Please list them including: b - Are there specific requirements or zone prohibitions for storing hydrogen in the land use plans?
b - Experience up to now was always a combination of production–storage and a fuelling station. In that case a safety study set up by an accredited safety expert has to be provided for the hydrogen installation, since specific legislation for a hydrogen installation is missing and the risk was considered high. If legislation will be in place, this safety study will not be required anymore, especially not if it is only about production and storage and not about a fuelling station..
Question 1 What are the main requirements with their applicable regulations for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement) apart from the land use planning? Please list them including: c - Are there specific requirements or zone prohibitions for storing hydrogen in the land use plans?
c - The safety report describes the safety distances based “iso–risk contours”, which describes the location–related risk (relative to the installation) that an unprotected person that resides in that area would die due to the specific activity.
Question 1 What are the main requirements with their applicable regulations for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement) apart from the land use planning? Please list them including: d - Are there specific requirements or zone prohibitions for storing hydrogen in the land use plans? What are the main requirements with their applicable regulations for storing hydrogen (e.g. permitting regime, agreement) apart from the land use planning? Please list them including:
d - Click here to enter free text.
Question 2 What is the competent authority responsible for the permitting requirements? If more than one, list them
For class I installations: The province For class II installations: The municipality This depends on the classification of the installation, which is done according to the expected environmental burden of an installation. If there is hydrogen storage included in the installation or a hydrogen distribution system, it is always Class I. The classification indicates the possible annoyance for people and environment. Class 3 is the lowest degree of annoyance, Class I the highest.
Question 3 What are the different steps of the process (e.g. which authority in charge of each step)?
Define the class of the installation (1–2–3). Class I and II need a permit, for class III a notification is sufficient. Step 1= preparation before submitting request: project meeting with involved authorities and gathering all required documents for the file to be submitted to get the environmental permit (e.g; safety study, results of environmental effects screening Step 2 = submit request to Flemish environmental service desk (omgevingsloket) Step 3 = the responsible authority defines whether the file is complete and eligible (30 days) Step 4 = involved provincial or municipal services are consulted and a public consultation is organised (30 days) Step 5 = Advise seeking phase (60 days) Step 6 = Decision phase (105 days after step 3) Step 7 = Publication phase Step 8= Before exploitation can start, a recognised environmental expert has to check whether all requirements of the installation as stipulated in the environmental permit or safety study are actually fulfilled)
Question 4 Are there any exemptions/”simplified” process (e.g. for demonstration projects)?
In the Brussels region there is a simplified process for temporary projects (< 6 months) which can be applied e.g. for mobile refuelling stations.
Question 5 What kind of permits are needed by the approval authority, and are they separated/integrated (single permit)? E.g. building permit , construction and operation permit for installations, environmental permit
The environmental permit unites and replaces the urban planning permit and the environmental permit.
Question 6 Is the process at local level uniform throughout a country? (uniform interpretation?)
The process is uniform throughout the region (Flanders)
Describe the comparable technology and its relevance with regard to hydrogen
Other “dangerous” of inflammable gases

National legislation:

EU Legislation:

  • Directive 2012/18/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (so-called SEVESO Directive)
    The Directive covers situations where dangerous substances may be present (e.g. during processing or storage) in quantities exceeding certain thresholds.

    It establishes:
    • General obligations on the operator (Article 5)
    • Notification (information on the form and amount of substances, the activity, and the surrounding environment) of all concerned establishments (Article 7),
    • The obligation to deploy a major accident prevention policy (Article 8),
    • The obligation to produce a safety report for upper-tier establishments (Article 10);
    • The obligation to produce internal emergency plans for upper tier establishments (Article 12);
    • Authorities to exert control of the siting of new establishments, modifications to new establishments, and new developments including transport routes, locations of public use and residential areas in the vicinity of establishments, (Article 13)
    • The obligation to conduct public consultations on specific individual projects that may involve risk of major accidents (Article 15)

    Annex I, Part 1, establishes Hydrogen as a dangerous substance (therefore within scope) and lists the quantity of hydrogen for the application of lower-tier requirements (≥ 5t) and upper-tier requirements (≥ 50t).

    For quantities of less than 5 tonnes of hydrogen, none of the obligations above would apply.

    The Directive is relevant for both the approval of bunkering / landing installations as well as on board transport of hydrogen
  • ATEX Directive 2014/34/EU - covering equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres
    The Directive defines the essential health and safety requirements and conformity assessment procedures (Article 4) to be applied before products are placed on the EU market and is significant for the engineering of hydrogen production plants. It covers inter alia equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.

    The Directive requires employers to classify areas where hazardous explosive atmospheres may occur into zones. The classification given to a particular zone, and its size and location, depends on the likelihood of an explosive atmosphere occurring and its persistence if it does.

    The Directive requires the manufacturers to design their equipment to be suitable for use within their customer’s explosive atmosphere. Therefore, manufacturers of equipment rely upon their customer to give them information about the classification of the zone and the flammable substance(s) within that zone.

    The Directive describes the rules and regulations for all actors in the value chain, with respect to ensuring that only safe equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres are sold and applied. It provides regulation of how the equipment shall be constructed, produced and documented, as well as the rules for CE-labelling.

    It also contains, inter alia conformity assessment procedures (Art 13) EU declaration of conformity (Art 14) and General principles of the CE marking (Art 16)

    The Directive is relevant for the approval of landing / bunkering installations
  • Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending Directive 2011/92/EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment).
    The Directives (and their subsequent amendments) define a strategic environmental impact assessment procedure. The procedure is summarized as follows: the developer may request the competent authority define what should be covered by the EIA information to be provided by the developer (scoping stage); the developer must provide information on the environmental impact (EIA report – Annex IV); the environmental authorities and the public (and affected Member States) must be informed and consulted; the competent authority decides, taken into consideration the results of consultations. The public is informed of the decision afterwards and can challenge the decision before the courts.

    In line with the EIA Directive, Production and Storage of Hydrogen falls within the projects listed in Annex II (6a and 6c -production of chemicals; and storage facilities for chemical product), for which Member States shall determine whether the project shall be made subject to an assessment or not. In some EU countries, storage of 5 tons of hydrogen or more falls within the scope of the Directives.

    The latest amendment, (Directive 2014/52/EU) introduces minimum requirements with regards to the type of projects subject to assessment, the main obligations of developers, the content of the assessment and the participation of the competent authorities and the public.
  • Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (EIA Directive)
    The Directives (and their subsequent amendments) define a strategic environmental impact assessment procedure. The procedure is summarized as follows: the developer may request the competent authority define what should be covered by the EIA information to be provided by the developer (scoping stage); the developer must provide information on the environmental impact (EIA report – Annex IV); the environmental authorities and the public (and affected Member States) must be informed and consulted; the competent authority decides, taken into consideration the results of consultations. The public is informed of the decision afterwards and can challenge the decision before the courts.

    In line with the EIA Directive, Production and Storage of Hydrogen falls within the projects listed in Annex II (6a and 6c -production of chemicals; and storage facilities for chemical product), for which Member States shall determine whether the project shall be made subject to an assessment or not. In some EU countries, storage of 5 tons of hydrogen or more falls within the scope of the Directives.

    The latest amendment, (Directive 2014/52/EU) introduces minimum requirements with regards to the type of projects subject to assessment, the main obligations of developers, the content of the assessment and the participation of the competent authorities and the public.
  • Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA Directive)
    The Directives (and their subsequent amendments) define a strategic environmental impact assessment procedure. The procedure is summarized as follows: the developer may request the competent authority define what should be covered by the EIA information to be provided by the developer (scoping stage); the developer must provide information on the environmental impact (EIA report – Annex IV); the environmental authorities and the public (and affected Member States) must be informed and consulted; the competent authority decides, taken into consideration the results of consultations. The public is informed of the decision afterwards and can challenge the decision before the courts.

    In line with the EIA Directive, Production and Storage of Hydrogen falls within the projects listed in Annex II (6a and 6c -production of chemicals; and storage facilities for chemical product), for which Member States shall determine whether the project shall be made subject to an assessment or not. In some EU countries, storage of 5 tons of hydrogen or more falls within the scope of the Directives.

    The latest amendment, (Directive 2014/52/EU) introduces minimum requirements with regards to the type of projects subject to assessment, the main obligations of developers, the content of the assessment and the participation of the competent authorities and the public.
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  • Directive 2014/68/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of pressure equipment.
    The Pressure Equipment Directive, applies to the design, manufacture and conformity assessment of pressure equipment and assemblies with a maximum allowable pressure greater than 0.5 bar.

    Technical requirements and classification according to an ascending level of hazard, depending on pressure, volume or nominal size, the fluid group and state of aggregation, as well as conformity assessment procedures are laid down and required by the Directive

    Hydrogen is a fluid which falls under Group 1. Group 1 consists of dangerous fluids (flammable, toxic and/or oxidizing). As a result, a large part of the equipment for H2 production, storage and distribution must meet the technical requirements set out in the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED).

    The Directive is relevant for the approval of landing / bunkering installations
  • Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora.
    Article 6, states the requirement of assessment of plans or projects not connected with the management of, but likely to have a significant effect on the conservation objectives of Natura 2000 sites
  • Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds.
    The main provisions of the Directive include the maintenance of the populations of all wild bird species (article 2), as well as the identification and classification of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for rare or vulnerable species, and the establishment of a general scheme of protection for all wild birds (Article 5). They further define the conditions under which permission may be given for otherwise prohibited activities