Spain

Some 328,000 single-family homes could install rooftop PV systems for self-consumption in Spain, according to a new report published by Solarwatt. This means the country has the potential to deploy around 1.5 GW of residential PV capacity over the next three years.

On Thursday, PV conference organizer Solarplaza and Spanish solar association UNEF will host the Solar Market Parity conference in Madrid. pv magazine’s Pilar Sánchez Molina will participate in the Vision of the future: Spain in 2030 panel.

Spain’s most important renewable energy fair is becoming increasingly about solar. After a decade of slim pickings, last year’s event promised better times and, if this year’s show didn’t completely deliver, that’s because elections loom large.

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 €125 million solar park is under construction near Seville. The project was selected in an auction held by the Spanish government in July 2017.

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.

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.

Approximately 261.7 MW of new PV systems were deployed in the country last year, according to provisional numbers from solar energy association UNEF. Once again, rooftop PV for self-consumption drove demand, although 26 MW of ground-mounted solar parks were connected in 2018.

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.