Catalan independence protests notwithstanding, the Spanish government’s Council of Ministers is today set to approve “three essential pillars” of its climate change policy: the preliminary draft of the Climate Change Law, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 and the Fair Transition Strategy, to “allow Spain to have a stable, predictable and accurate framework for the decarbonization of its economy by 2050”. The measures, said president Pedro Sánchez, could generate 300,000 jobs.

That was the one of the main conclusions reached among 400 attendees at the Solar plants in Spain: development, financing and energy future conference, organized by Soltec and PV association UNEF in Madrid this week.

The Balearic parliament is today set to approve the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition that includes, among other measures, an obligation to incorporate PV panels in car parks and new buildings. The bill also mandates the closure of all polluting power plants from next year and a prohibition of diesel vehicles from 2025, and petrol engines from 2035.

The Spanish company has agreed with the Canadian CarbonFree the sale and construction of four new solar plants in Chile worth $33 million.

Audax Renovables has signed an agreement with Welink under which the Spanish company will buy – for 20 years at a fixed price – the energy produced by solar facilities with a total 708 MW of generation capacity that Welink will develop in Spain and Portugal. German group Allianz will buy the solar plants after completion.

U.S. fund KKR and Spanish group Gestamp have reportedly begun X-Elio’s sale process. Oil business Repsol and power company Iberdrola are said to be among the interested buyers circling the PV project developer.

Some 22 projects were admitted to participate – 17 of them solar – in the country’s first RE procurement exercise, which will be held on February 26.

The production line would mean the Spanish company would comply with local content requirements. GPTech says its order book exceeds 400 MW, including 200 MW of large-scale projects in South Africa.

The Spanish government has proposed a Royal Decree with new self-consumption regulation which is expected to be approved in March or April. According to the new rules, power surpluses may be shared with other consumers or fed to the grid.

The German company acquired the rights to build the plant from Synergia Energy Solutions. The Alarcos solar park will be in the municipalities of Ciudad Real and Poblete. Work is expected to begin in April, with grid-connection this year.