Introduction

Georgia stands at a critical juncture in its energy transition, endowed with vast untapped renewable resources solar, wind, and hydro, but hindered by complex and outdated bureaucratic processes. While significant technical and financial challenges persist, the most immediate and addressable obstacle lies within the country’s permitting and regulatory environment. Renewable energy developers face excessive delays, legal uncertainty and fragmented administrative procedures at every stage - from accessing land for feasibility studies to obtaining construction permits and securing grid connection.

These barriers not only deter private investment but also slow Georgia’s progress toward energy independence and climate commitments. Institutional fragmentation, limited inter-agency coordination and a lack of digitalization continue to obstruct otherwise viable clean energy projects.

This article examines the core bureaucratic challenges in Georgia’s renewable energy development framework and provides actionable policy recommendations inspired by successful EU models. Drawing on best practices from countries such as Portugal, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, it proposes legal, institutional and digital solutions to modernize the permitting ecosystem. By addressing these obstacles, Georgia can unlock its renewable energy potential, attract sustainable investment and build a more resilient and climate-friendly energy future.

1. Bureaucracy at the Initial Stage: Pre-Feasibility & Feasibility Research Access

In Georgia, investors often face major obstacles before even launching renewable energy projects. There is currently no legal mechanism that allows developers to access land for conducting basic pre-feasibility or feasibility studies without already possessing formal land rights. As a result, developers are effectively blocked from assessing the technical and economic viability of a project at an early stage, leading to unnecessary delays and uncertainty.

This lack of legal flexibility inhibits private investment and contradicts modern energy planning practices, where exploratory assessments are essential for data-driven decisions about resource availability, grid connectivity and project layout.

Best Practice – Portugal: In Portugal, the government grants developer’s temporary exploration rights through a transparent, centralized auction system. These rights allow developers to conduct technical, environmental and grid feasibility assessments without needing to acquire the land first. This has contributed to a more dynamic and investor-friendly renewable energy landscape.

2. Bureaucracy in Land Rights & Special Zones

One of the most persistent bureaucratic obstacles in Georgia’s renewable energy sector arises when projects intersect with sensitive or strategically regulated territories. These include protected environmental zones, cultural heritage sites, forests, water pipelines, oil and gas infrastructure corridors and other special regimes. Each of these domains is governed by a different agency, often without any centralized mechanism for coordination. As a result, developers are forced to apply for multiple, often overlapping permissions.

For example, a single hydropower project might need simultaneous permits from the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, National Forest Agency and local self-governments. Each agency evaluates the application independently and often lacks the capacity or incentive to prioritize the national energy strategy. This fragmented institutional setup creates a bureaucratic maze that deters investment, especially in Georgia’s mountainous regions where such overlaps are frequent.

Best Practice – Denmark & Netherlands: These countries have established integrated land use and spatial planning systems based on centralized Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Developers can digitally assess whether a project site intersects any restricted zones. Moreover, once applications are submitted, coordination is automated across agencies through a unified platform. This significantly reduces processing time and ensures that no authority works in isolation.

3. Construction Permits & the Role of Local Municipalities

Construction permitting is a critical phase in renewable energy project development and in Georgia, much of this authority rests with local municipalities. Several of these municipalities lack the institutional capacity, technical expertise and policy alignment necessary to assess renewable energy projects in a timely and coherent manner. This creates several problems: inconsistent decisions across regions, unpredictable permitting outcomes, lengthy delays and in some cases, obstruction of strategic energy infrastructure. Investors face a legal environment in which the rules change depending on the municipality, making long-term planning and risk assessment difficult.

Best Practice – Germany: Germany addresses this issue through a clearly defined coordination mechanism between federal and municipal authorities. For projects of strategic or transregional importance, national permitting guidelines prevail and local governments are integrated into a centralized permitting process. This ensures that while local voices are respected, they do not obstruct energy policy implementation or create regulatory fragmentation.

4. One-Stop-Shop (OSS) Model: EU Lessons

What is an OSS?

A One-Stop-Shop (OSS) in the context of renewable energy development is a centralized institutional or digital platform that allows developers to navigate the full permitting process through a single point of entry. Rather than forcing investors to interact separately with a multitude of agencies including ministries, local governments, environmental authorities, heritage bodies and grid operators, the OSS collects all necessary documentation, coordinates interagency communication and provides clear timelines for decisions.

An effective OSS is not merely a submission portal. It is a fully empowered coordination mechanism, often backed by law, with the ability to engage all relevant authorities, resolve inconsistencies and ensure that projects move forward in a streamlined and legally predictable manner. In some countries, the OSS also provides guidance, templates, early warnings about potential conflicts and post-approval support related to grid connection or financing.

Benefits of an OSS:

• Time-efficiency & Predictability: Streamlined procedures and clear deadlines reduce overall permitting time and minimize project delays.
• Improved Interagency Coordination: The OSS facilitates communication and decision-making among various government bodies, helping avoid duplication or contradictions.
• Transparency & Clarity: All application stages are visible to the developer and there is a single channel for updates or objections.
• Investor Confidence: The reduced bureaucratic burden and legal certainty attract both local and foreign investors by lowering project risk.
• Better Governance: Centralization helps detect systemic delays, improves accountability and supports policy alignment with national energy targets.

Typical OSS Services Include:

• Centralized permit submission and management (e.g., EIA, land use, environmental, construction and operational permits).
• Access to spatial planning tools, GIS maps and legal zoning information.
• Early-stage technical screening to assess project viability.
• Coordination of grid connection procedures, including capacity checks and scheduling.
• Advisory support on financial incentives, regulations and compliance requirements.
• Digital tracking of permit status, deadlines and document requests.

5. Grid Connection Dilemma: Integration into OSS?

One of the most critical yet underdeveloped aspects of renewable energy permitting in Georgia is the grid connection process. Currently, grid connection is not integrated into any centralized permitting framework. Developers must submit separate applications to the JSC Georgian State Electrosystem (GSE) without access to real-time grid capacity data or binding response timelines. This creates significant uncertainty during early project planning and introduces delays even after other permits are secured.

Often, developers only discover at a later stage that the transmission or distribution network cannot accommodate their project leading to wasted time and investment. Furthermore, the lack of transparency over where available capacity exists discourages investment in regions with renewable potential but unclear connectivity.

In most EU countries, grid connection has evolved into a core element of One-Stop-Shop (OSS) systems or at least benefits from integrated digital tools that improve planning, coordination and predictability.

6. General Recommendations for Georgia

To unlock Georgia’s renewable energy potential and attract stable investment, systemic reforms in the permitting and approval framework are essential. Based on EU best practices and Georgia’s unique institutional context, the following recommendations are proposed:

• Establish a One-Stop-Shop (OSS) with Inter-Agency Mandate

Today, developers must interact with up to 5 different agencies, often sequentially, leading to year-long delays. A single coordinating body does not exist. It is necessary to
create a national-level OSS housed within the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development or as an independent Energy Permitting Agency, with the power to: receive all project applications through one digital interface, internally coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies,
monitor deadlines to ensure accountability and to provide guidance to investors and developers. As a result, OSS will significantly reduce project lead time, minimize bureaucratic friction and align Georgia with modern EU practices.

• Introduce Digital GIS and Permitting Tools

At present, land ownership records, protected area maps and grid capacity data are scattered or not publicly accessible. My recommendation is to develop a centralized digital geoportal, ensuring:
land-use zoning and ownership; forest, water and heritage zone overlays; describing
existing infrastructure (pipelines, roads, grid nodes) and showing
available grid capacity and technical connection points. Also, it should be possible to get
real-time permitting application tracking. All of this would increase transparency, allow developers to pre-assess risks and reduce time lost on technically unviable sites.

• Align Local and Central Permitting Responsibilities

Local municipalities play a critical role in issuing construction permits, but their technical expertise, alignment with national energy goals and consistency vary. Accordingly,
it will be better to introduce national guidelines and training for municipal permitting staff, create model permitting templates to ensure consistency and allow the central OSS to override municipal delays or unjustified refusals for projects of strategic importance. As a result, this ensures local compliance with national priorities while maintaining institutional balance.

• Launch Pilot Streamlined Permitting Zones

Rather than reforming the entire system at once, Georgia can benefit from piloting new approaches in selected regions. In particular, to identify 2–3 regions with high renewable energy potential and implement OSS processes, digitize local permitting workflows and monitor performance, investor satisfaction and timeframes, will play beneficial role in the future. These pilots can demonstrate early success, build political will, and serve as scalable models for nationwide implementation.

• Smart Legal Amendments Instead of a New Unified Law

While a new comprehensive law on renewable energy permitting may seem ideal, Georgia’s legislative environment and institutional capacity suggest that targeted amendments to existing legal acts can achieve faster and more sustainable results. Instead of starting from scratch, the government should identify legal bottlenecks within existing laws on construction, land use, environmental protection, electricity and spatial planning and introduce harmonized amendments that enable streamlined permitting processes across the project lifecycle.

• Key Areas for Legal Amendment

Land Access for Pre-Feasibility Studies: Amend the Law on State Property or relevant sub-legislation to introduce a mechanism for granting developers temporary, non-exclusive access to public land for pre-feasibility studies. Such access can be conditioned on basic safeguards (e.g., no construction, restoration of land after use), minimizing risks to the state while empowering early-stage project assessments.

Cross-Sector Coordination Clause: Amend sectoral laws (e.g., Forest Code, Cultural Heritage Law, Law on Environmental Protection) to include a clause mandating inter-agency coordination for strategic energy projects. This would provide a legal basis for cooperation and data exchange between agencies through the OSS or other coordinating body.

Time-Bound Permitting Obligations: Include provisions in the General Administrative Code of Georgia or individual permitting laws to impose strict response timelines on authorities reviewing renewable energy applications. Delays could be reduced if silence or inaction by an agency within a statutory period is deemed consent - an approach adopted in several EU countries.

Harmonized Definitions & Terminology: Inconsistencies in terminology across laws (e.g., “strategic project,” “infrastructure facility,” “preliminary permit”) create legal uncertainty and misalignment. A legal harmonization initiative led by the Ministry of Justice, together with sectoral regulators could clarify definitions, references and scopes to ensure coherence across the permitting landscape.

By Levan Kokaia:

Strategic Legal Advisor in Renewable Energy

Lawyer at Georgian Renewable Energy Development Association (GREDA).