Renewables pressure the Government to trigger green objectives in the midst of the energy crisis

• The photovoltaic employer UNEF claims that the new Energy and Climate Plan raises up to 66% its forecast of new solar until 2030, multiplying by four the current power. It joins the wind association, which asks for an increase of 26%
• The association admits that hundreds of new solar plants are at risk due to the delay in processing in the midst of the collapse of the Administration, but calls for more ambition

Solar energy breaks records in Spain. After years of stoppage, the sector has settled in a constant and increasing growth. Last year, 4,690 megawatts (MW) of new photovoltaic power were installed in Spain, a new all-time high, with strong increases in both ground-based solar plants (3,487 MW, 20% more than the previous year) and especially in self-consumption (1,203 MW, more than double).

The forecast of the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), the main employer of the sector, is that this year will again set a new record both in plant installations and in self-consumption, despite the bottlenecks that the sector is finding to obtain permits for new plants by the Government and the autonomous communities and to achieve access to plug into the electricity grid.

The photovoltaic employer wants to accelerate the expansion of solar energy and has already called on the Government in the midst of the energy crisis to extend the deployment objectives until 2030. The Executive prepares an update of the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the roadmap to advance in the decarbonization process and that marks the objectives of the electricity generation mix until the end of the decade. The association has taken advantage of the public consultation process opened by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, commanded by Vice President Teresa Ribera, to present allegations and demand more ambition.

UNEF pressures the Government to raise the expansion objectives of photovoltaic in the Spanish market from the 39,000 MW proposed by the current version of the NECP and shoot them up to between 55,000 and 65,000 MW of new power until 2030, with increases of between 40% and 66% in relation to the current scenario, according to José Donoso, general director of the photovoltaic employers’ association. This new power will include 15,000 MW of self-consumption facilities, which until now are not included in the government plan.

Achieving these new objectives set by UNEF would imply more than tripling the current installed capacity in Spain, where photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of 17,700 MW are in operation, according to the latest updated records of Red Eléctrica de España, the manager of the national electricity system. The business association defends that the new roadmap includes a greater commitment to the electrification of the economy and, in parallel, more renewable sources to achieve it. “You have to go further. We have a sector that wants to invest more and a society that needs it,” says Donoso. “There is no justification for not being more ambitious.”

The photovoltaic employer thus joins the claim of the Wind Business Association (AEE) to raise the goals of wind electricity generation facilities. The wind employer has also transmitted in the allegations to the new NECP to increase from the 50,300 new MW now contemplated in the plan to a total of 63,000 additional MW, 26% more. PREPA’s request includes adding 3,000 MW of offshore wind, 9,500 MW of onshore wind dedicated to manufacturing hydrogen, 750 MW of additional onshore wind and also contemplate a repowering of 15,000 MW of existing parks.

FLOOD OF APPLICATIONS

The Government will review the terms of the current NECP, in line with the requirements of the European Union, now that they have been overwhelmed by the flood of applications that accumulate to build new green energy plants. Compared to the 39,000 MW of new photovoltaic contemplated in the official plan, there are currently about 80,000 MW with administrative procedures already initiated and subject to public information. Specifically, there are plants with 2,800 MW already under construction, 7,100 MW that have the construction authorization, another 8,000 MW that already have the environmental impact statement and more than 62,000 MW that have activated the initial administrative processes.

The administrations and the renewable sector itself take for granted that an important part of this flood of applications do not have any real project behind them and that the promoters will end up withdrawing the request or it will be denied. The big problem, the great luxury that the Spanish economy cannot afford in the middle of the energy transition, is that of the hundreds of projects that do have energy projects behind them and that are at risk of not going ahead due to the delay accumulated by the Administrations.

According to UNEF estimates, 77 photovoltaic plants are under construction and 235 already have all the permits to start the works. But 232 only have the environmental impact statement and another 1,185 plants (of which a large part will never go ahead because they do not have a real project behind them) are in the initial stages of processing. In practice, several hundred future facilities are endangered by administrative collapse.

COLLAPSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION

The Government approved last December an extension of the deadlines for renewable developers to obtain some of the intermediate permits (the environmental impact statement and prior administrative authorization), preventing hundreds of projects from declining due to the delay of the administrations, and that the promoters could lose the guarantees presented to obtain the licenses and permits for access to the network obtained. With the new deadlines, most projects must have those permits by the end of this year or very early in 2023.

The avalanche of renewable projects continues to be such that it has ended up collapsing the Administrations in charge of granting permits and causing enormous delays in processing (the Ministry for the Ecological Transition in the case of large projects of more than 50 MW and the autonomous communities for the plants of lower power). The delays threaten to eject projects that do have an actual construction plan.

Source: EPE