2023-10-01 07:45:10
In 2022, the photovoltaic sector recorded the best year in its history with an acceleration of new solar parks, but with an uneven expansion: six regions installed nothing or almost nothing and three concentrated more than three quarters. Last year was a record year for the sector photovoltaic Spanish. The entry into operation of new solar plants accelerated to record its historical maximum as part of the avalanche of new installations of renewable energy for which Spain is preparing in the coming years (decades, actually) to promote and make possible the unavoidable decarbonization of its economy.
Spain installed 4,701 megawatts last year (MW) of new photovoltaic power in ground plants (not including data from the self-consumption boom), with a growth of almost 25% compared to the 3,500 MW added in 2021, thus consolidating last year as the best in the history of the sector, according to data from the annual report prepared by the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF).
In the midst of a flurry of new solar plants coming into operation, the pace is very uneven across autonomous communities. While during the past year until six regions installed nothing or almost nothing of new power photovoltaic (Madrid, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country and Navarra), there were three that managed to monopolize just over 80% of all the new park capacity, with 3,778 MW together.
Extremadura (1,467 MW), Andalusia (1,186 MW) and Castilla-La Mancha (1,125 MW) led the effective deployment of new solar parks in the year of the boom, and they did so by far in relation to the following communities that added new installations plugged into the grid and began producing: Castilla y León (412 MW), Aragón (307 MW), according to the combined records of UNEF and Red Eléctrica de España, the manager of the Spanish electricity system and the high voltage network.
Extremadura, Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha are traditionally the three regions with the greatest presence of photovoltaic energy (they concentrate around just over 60% of all the accumulated power of ground plants, with 12,532 MW of the total of 19,864 MW that there was in Spain at the end of 2022). But last year’s acceleration has served to reinforce its leadership and widen the gap.
From the national solar sector it is confirmed that the three regions are those that concentrate the greatest activity of energy companies focused on photovoltaics due to their characteristics of greater number of hours of sunshine and the greater extension of the rural territory which can be more easily converted for energy exploitation. But it is also noted that the administrations of the three regions have been much more agile than most other regions in the processing process and in promoting the solar business for some time.
The coming avalanche
The accelerated deployment is also maintained this exercise. According to the internal figures managed by the photovoltaic employers’ association, during this year the sector has deployed about 2,300 MW of new power until August, and UNEF assumes that “easily” This data may be duplicated until the end of the yearwhich will practically tie the record of the already historic 2022.
Renewables are pushing to achieve another two-year extension to build a thousand green plants
Last June, the Government sent a draft of the update of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the Spanish roadmap for promote clean energy and move towards the decarbonization of the economy until 2030. The text, which still must be endorsed by the EU, contemplates the objective of reaching the end of the decade with a total of 57,000 MW of ground-based photovoltaic plants, which means installing some 29,600 additional MW in relation to the current power and execute investments of 20.7 billion euros.
Currently there are photovoltaic projects in different degrees of maturity of the long administrative process that already exceed the objective of additional power necessary to achieve the PNIEC objective. Of the total of 68,000 MW in renewable projects that are being prepared in Spain and that have already requested administrative permits and are in the race to obtain them, around 53,000 MW correspond to photovoltaic projects. Not all projects will pass all administrative milestones, in any case, and the sector as a whole has yet to pass the network access problems in saturated areas and the traffic jam that comes for construction of all projects.
Occupy 0.38% of agricultural land
The boom in new renewables is encountering a problem of social rejection in Spain due to the fear of neighbors about the impact on the territories of the deployment of all these projects. And the green energy sector also faces criticism due to the fear that the use of land for solar or wind plants will mean a cut in the areas dedicated to agricultural and livestock work. The majority of the employers’ association UNEF refuses.
“We have territory. Meeting the objectives of the PNIEC does not imply an incompatibility of agricultural uses. If all the necessary projects are carried out to achieve the goals of the plan, it would only be necessary to use 0.38% of all Spanish agricultural land. “We can continue installing photovoltaics and develop agricultural crops at the same time,” underlines the general director of UNEF, José Donoso. “Against demagoguery, mathematics.”
The expansion of self-consumption
Last year’s solar boom not only promoted large soil plants, it also became a reality for the self-consumption. The expansion of self-consumption in Spain surpassed all records last year. Only in 2022 was as much photovoltaic self-consumption installed in the country as in all previous history. Renewable companies launched facilities throughout the country with a power of more than 2,500 megawatts (MW), more than doubling the previous year’s deployment and raising all operational power in the country to almost 5,250 MW, according to UNEF.
Jam in the distribution of self-consumption aid: two years of delay in collecting it slows down the boom
A boom driven last year by the very high prices of electricity to historic highs and by million-dollar subsidies from European funds. But after last year’s lightning-fast growth, deployment has now begun to slow down. The photovoltaic employers’ association warns of a “dramatic” drop in self-consumption installations in homes, while deployment in industries and businesses still continues at a good pace.
And individuals, according to UNEF analysis, They have lost the perception that electricity prices are still high (they are well below the peaks of the worst of the energy crisis, but also well above in relation to the historical average) and the idea has also spread that aid with European funds does not reach the consumer.
The renewable sector warns of a major traffic jam in the processing by the autonomous communities of the more than 500,000 aid applications, with some regional administrations not carrying out the requests and generating long delays in the effective distribution of the money, delays of more than two years accumulating until the actual collection of the subsidy.
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