Average winning solar bids in Spain’s renewables auction this week came in above those for wind as interest among PV bidders faltered against a backdrop of rising equipment costs and regulatory uncertainty.
Spain’s renewables auction next month is set to receive high levels of interest from solar bidders, according to industry observers, as the country’s government seeks to support the swift deployment of new capacity following a summer beset by record-breaking electricity prices.
Spain should limit the size of new solar parks to encourage the deployment of smaller projects located closer to consumers, the country’s National Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers (ANPIER) has said.
Spain has made the second of four steps necessary to carry out its 2-3GW renewable energy tender by passing a ministerial order, but the country’s main solar association has taken issue with with what it believes is a blatant favouring of wind energy in what should be a technology neutral auction.
Spain’s National Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers (ANPIER) has opened a permanent office in Brussels to help direct European Union policy on renewables by publicising the historic financial suffering of thousands of Spanish solar consumers at the hands of retroactive legislative changes.
Spain’s new minority government is set to herald a new wave of gigawatt-scale renewable tenders and its lack of majority may even lead to the lifting of a controversial ‘Sun Tax’ on solar self-consumption.
Spain’s Supreme Court has ruled against appeals claiming that the Popular Party’s cutbacks on the feed-in-tariff (FiTs) for solar in 2013 and 2014 were retroactive.
