S.L. 545.35 Art. 2Interpretation.  

(1) For the purposes of these regulations, the relevant definitions in the Electricity Regulations shall apply.

(2) Unless the context otherwise requires:

"Act" means the Regulator for Energy and Water Services Act;

"advanced biofuels" means biofuels that are produced from the feedstock listed in Part A of the Fifth Schedule;

"ambient energy" means naturally occurring thermal energy and energy accumulated in the environment with constrained boundaries, which can be stored in the ambient air, excluding in exhaust air, or in surface or sewage water;

"biofuels" means liquid fuel for transport produced from biomass;

"biogas" means gaseous fuels produced from biomass;

"bioliquids" means liquid fuel for energy purposes other than

*These regulations have been repealed by Legal Notice 93 of 2026. for transport, including electricity and heating and cooling, produced from biomass;

"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;

"biomass fuels" means gaseous and solid fuels produced from biomass;

"Building and Construction Authority" means the Authority established by article 5 of the Building and Construction Authority Act;

"Directive" means Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (recast);

"distribution system operator" means an operator as defined in regulation 2 of the Electricity Regulations for electricity and in regulation 2 of the Natural Gas Market Regulations for natural gas;

"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;

"efficient district heating and cooling"shall have the same meaning as assigned to efficient district heating and cooling in the

Energy Efficiency Regulations;

"energy from renewable sources" or "renewable energy" means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar (solar thermal and solar photovoltaic) and geothermal energy, ambient energy, tide, wave and other ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas, and biogas;

"energy from renewable sources" or "renewable energy" means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar (solar thermal and solar photovoltaic) and geothermal energy, osmotic energy, ambient energy, tide, wave and other ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas, and biogas;

"energy performance certificate" shall have the same meaning as assigned to energy performance certificate in the Energy

Performance of Buildings Regulations;

"European Union" or "Union" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Treaty;

"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 of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/ 2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013. (EU) No 1316/2013,

(EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012;

"food and feed crops" means starch-rich crops, sugar crops or oil crops produced on agricultural land as a main crop excluding residues, waste or ligno-cellulosic material and intermediate crops, such as catch crops and cover crops, provided that the use of such intermediate crops does not trigger demand for additional land;

"fuel supplier" means an entity supplying fuel to the market that is responsible for passing fuel through an excise duty point or, in the case of electricity or where no excise is due or where duly justified, any other relevant entity so designated;

"geothermal energy" means energy stored in the form of heat beneath the surface of solid earth;

"green certificate" means a tradeable commodity representing the environmental attributes of a specific quantity of energy produced from renewable energy sources issued upon compliance with environmental quality and sustainability criteria;

"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, heat and transport fuel production, and losses of electricity and heat in distribution and transmission;

"high-efficiency cogeneration" shall have the same meaning as assigned to high-efficiency cogeneration in the Energy Efficiency

Regulations;

"jointly acting renewables self-consumers" means a group of at least two jointly acting renewables self-consumers who are located in the same building or multi-apartment block;

"ligno-cellulosic material" means material composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, such as biomass sourced from forests, woody energy crops and forest-based industries' residues and wastes; "low indirect land-use change-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels" means biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels, the feedstock of which was produced within schemes which avoid displacement effects of food and feed-crop based biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels through improved agricultural practices as well as through the cultivation of crops on areas which were previously not used for cultivation of crops, and which were produced in accordance with the sustainability criteria for biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels laid down in regulation 3 of the Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass Fuels (Sustainability Criteria) Regulations;

"Member State" means a state which is a member of the European Union;

"Member State of origin" or "country of origin" means a state from which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported to another Member State or a third country;

"Member State of destination" or "country of destination" means a Member State or country which receives or to which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported from the country of origin;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for energy and water services, provided that for the purposes of these regulations which regulate planning matters, it shall mean the Minister responsible for energy and water services in consultation with the Minister responsible for the Planning Authority;

"non-food cellulosic material" means feedstock mainly composed of cellulose and hemicellulose, and having a lower lignin content than ligno-cellulosic material, including food and feed crop residues, such as straw, stover, husks and shells; grassy energy crops with a low starch content, such as ryegrass, switchgrass, miscanthus, giant cane; cover crops before and after main crops; ley crops; industrial residues, including from food and feed crops after vegetal oils, sugars, starches and protein have been extracted; and material from biowaste, where ley and cover crops are understood to be temporary, short-term sown pastures comprising grass-legume mixture with a low starch content to obtain fodder for livestock and improve soil fertility for obtaining higher yields of arable main crops;

"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; "Planning Authority" means the Authority established by the

Development Planning Act;

"recycled carbon fuels" means liquid and gaseous fuels that are produced from liquid or solid waste streams of non-renewable origin which are not suitable for material recovery in accordance with regulation 4A of the Waste Regulations, or from waste processing gas and exhaust gas of non-renewable origin which are produced as an unavoidable and unintentional consequence of the production process in industrial installations;

"Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008" means Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on energy statistics;

"Regulation (EU) 2018/1999" means Regulation (EU) 2018/ 1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, amending Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/ 70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/EC, 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU and 2013/ 30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation

(EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

"Regulator" means the Regulator for Energy and Water Services established by the Act;

"relevant authority" means any authority or license or permit-issuing or administrative body responsible for the issuing of authorisations, licenses or permits, or responsible for the formulation and publication of general binding rules, insofar as these authorisations, licenses, permits or rules may directly impact, or relate to any activity which may impact, the achievement of the objectives laid down by these regulations:

Provided that for the purpose of these regulations, the responsible relevant permitting authorities shall include but not be limited to:

(a) the Planning Authority established in accordance with article 5 of the Development Planning Act, which shall be responsible to fulfil its obligations under the said Act; and

(b) the Regulator for Energy and Water Services established in accordance with article 3 of the

Regulator for Energy and Water Services Act, which shall be responsible to fulfil its obligations under the said Act;

"renewable energy community" means a legal entity:

(a) which, in accordance with the applicable law, is based on an 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, SME’s 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;

"renewable energy obligation" means a national 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;

"renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin" means liquid or gaseous fuels which are used in the transport sector other than biofuels or biogas, the energy content of which is derived from renewable sources other than biomass;

"renewables acceleration area" means a specific location or area, whether on land, sea or inland waters, which is designated as particularly suitable for the installation of renewable energy plants;

"renewables power purchase agreement" means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable electricity directly from an electricity producer;

"renewables self-consumer" means a final customer operating within its premises located within confined boundaries 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;

"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;

"residue" means a substance that is not the end product(s) that a production process directly seeks to produce; it is not a primary aim of the production process and the process has not been deliberately modified to produce it;

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

"solar energy equipment" means equipment that converts energy from the sun into thermal or electrical energy, in particular solar thermal and solar photovoltaic equipment;

"starch-rich crops" means crops comprising mainly cereals, regardless of whether the grains alone or the whole plant, such as in the case of green maize, are used; tubers and root crops, such as potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, cassava and yams; and corm crops, such as taro and cocoyam;

"support scheme" means any instrument, scheme or mechanism applied by the Minister, or by a group of Member States which includes Malta, 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;

"third country" means a country which is not a member of the European Union and which receives or to which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported from the country of origin;

"Treaty" shall have the same meaning as assigned to Treaty in the European Union Act;

"waste" means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard, excluding those substances that have been intentionally modified or contaminated in order to meet this definition;

"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.