Spain

At Intersolar Europe, Gamesa Electric’s solar sales director, Enrique de la Cruz explained the key to ensuring high reliability and a low energy price with the company’s new central inverter offering.

The modules will be used by U.K. developer Solarcentury for its Cabrera and Talayuela Solar projects in southern Spain.

At the end of May 2018, events in Spanish politics took a turn without precedent since the country embraced democracy: a motion of censure against the conservative PP (Partido Popular) by an all-but unified opposition received 180 votes in favour, 169 votes against, and 1 abstention. Pedro Sánchez, leader of the socialist PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español), took up the post of Prime Minister that Mariano Rajoy had held for the previous six years. For the PV sector, the change could not have come too soon.

Leading representatives of the European solar industry have issued a call for a new industrial strategy ahead of the European Commission’s upcoming proposals for the sector, which are expected this summer.

Spain’s Holaluz has agreed to buy electricity from up to 500 MW of solar capacity that China’s Chint Energy plans to build in Spain. The investment has been estimated at roughly €350 million.

The Spanish developer’s operating revenues reached €12.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, up roughly 35% from the preceding three-month period. EBITDA stood at €4.5 million, up 14% from the fourth quarter of 2018, suggesting that the company has been moving from strength to strength since listing its shares in December.

After signing multiple PPAs for big solar projects in the Iberian peninsula as a buyer of electricity, the Spanish utility has announced it intends sell power from its own solar facilities. The planned PV plant portfolio will be spread across Andalucía, Castilla la Mancha and Murcia.

The green hydrogen production plant planned for the Lloseta industrial area will be a pioneer project for Spain and Europe, say regional government officials, and is scheduled to start operating from 2021.

Although it is still unclear how the victorious Socialist Party will build a majority in parliament, listed Spanish energy companies such as Solaria and Audax saw the price of their shares rise significantly after the vote.

A new project is in line with the target of the Island Council of Tenerife to cover all electricity demand with renewable energy. The development of electromobility and storage is key to the ambition.