The Government has achieved it. His fierce opposition to extending the deadline that expired yesterday for hundreds of renewable projects to manage to save one of the key bureaucratic milestones for their development, such as obtaining the environmental impact declaration (DIA), has paid off.
At stake was the implementation of projects with a total capacity of around 80 GW that by the end of the year were accumulated in unresolved files on the desks of the offices of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, those of more than 50 MW; and from the different autonomous communities, those with less power. Without this declaration, the projects expire and the incumbent promoters will be forced to abandon the project and execute the deposited guarantees.
Finally, yesterday, January 25, 2023, the deadline to obtain that environmental certification, the vast majority of those files managed to pass the review. “We are missing the definitive data from the Autonomous Communities that we have to finish compiling and that we will report on when we have them. In the part that is the responsibility of the central administration, we have complied with 100%”, assured the second vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, upon arrival at a lunch organized by the Energy Club in which she also participated. Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency and the main executives of the Spanish energy sector.
“In total, 201 projects have been evaluated, of which 170 have obtained a favorable environmental impact statement and 22 unfavorable ones. Another eight have been archived due to lack of information and one has been dismissed because they have responded to the allegations this morning, out of time, after nine months of claims”, explained the vice president.
There is less clarity around what was evaluated by the autonomous communities, where the backlog of files has been much greater “especially in some”, according to Ribera.
From the organizations that represent the companies in the sector there is a mixture of satisfaction and alertness. “The progress has been considerable. Of the 19 GW that were at risk in the wind projects, 10 have obtained the DIA. Regarding the other 9 projects, we trust that depending on the date of presentation of the files that is taken into account, progress can also be made”, pointed out Juan Virgilio Márquez, director of the Business Wind Association (AEO).
Much greater risk had accumulated in the photovoltaic sector where at the end of December, the volume of pending files was around 60 GW. From the sector associations, APPA Renovables and Unión Española Fotovoltaica prefer not to give specific data yet. "We will have to wait for Red Eléctrica, the system manager, to notify them," they point out. Among them there is no euphoria, “it is possible that some very valid projects have been left out and the Government should articulate some way to solve this situation. But a lot of progress has been made considering what was there a little over a month ago, ”these organizations explain.
Catalonia, despite being one of those pointed out in recent weeks as the focus of these traffic jams, has also complied. From the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat they affirm that, of the 101 projects whose deadline expired this Wednesday, "only two have remained unresolved and the unfavorable resolutions will not reach 10. Many of the files have spent a long time responding to our information requirements because many adjustments had to be made to the initial project”, they point out. The Xunta de Galicia has also communicated that it has managed to evaluate 120 files out of the 140 it had. The biggest traffic jam pointed to the Valencian Community. According to EFE data, of the 107 projects, 61 have been resolved in favor, 31 against, and the other 15 have been the companies themselves that have declined to continue.
Two other communities would also be among the delayed. "In the wind field, where more projects may have remained unassessed has been in Castilla León and Aragón," says the Business Wind Association.
Despite the intensity with which it shone in red this January 25 in the calendars of the promotion of renewable energies, the problem does not end here. “Today was just one of the milestones that the projects had to meet. There are many more and many projects that will have problems”, warn sources from the energy sector consulted.
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) pointed out that despite the intention of some companies to question the project execution deadlines, there is no room for discussion. Sources from the sector explain that "everything responds to the fact that the Government has detected that there were many projects behind which there were only speculative intentions and they want to avoid at all costs that they be marketed and damage the international image of the sector in Spain ”.
