The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has announced that the Government will activate a consultation process with all actors in the energy sector to carry out an “orderly” deployment of renewable energies that has an impact on benefit of the territories.
The objective is to identify the best practices that the private sector is deploying to protect the territory and allow the population affected by this environmental impact to receive an adequate redistribution of the benefits.
“These good practices are essential to promote the ambitious objectives of developing 81% renewable generation by 2030, as stated in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec),” explained Teresa Ribera during her appearance at the Ecological Transition Commission. , from the Congress held yesterday.
In line with this sensitivity, the minister has confirmed that in the upcoming energy auctions, in addition to economic conditions, the industrial benefits and environmental contribution of the projects will be taken into account. “It is a way to respond to the different sensitivities that are occurring in Spain in implementing new renewable projects,” she said.
It is, he said, a basic need for a country that must address such an important challenge. Only in 2023 we have been the second country in Europe in wind energy and the eighth in renewable capacity worldwide. The minister has assured that she is clear that the need to bet on this type of energy "is firmly rooted in Spain", but it also represents a challenge that must be complemented with the development of storage and the creation of a mechanism that covers this available capacity as well. as a huge investment in adapting the electrical networks.
Ribera took advantage of his appearance to highlight the management carried out by his portfolio in the previous legislature and identified Spain as the eighth country with the most international investment in renewables. “We would not have done such evil,” he assured.
In this sense, he took the opportunity to reproach the practices of his predecessor in office, Álvaro Nadal, whose policies of changing premiums in renewables have caused Spain to accumulate more than 1,200 million euros in fines before the World Bank arbitration court. Ribera has confirmed that he will continue litigating until the end to try to reduce that bill as much as possible.
On the other hand, Ribera has confirmed that he will bring to the Council of Minister the project to launch an Energy Commission separate from the current Competition Commission (CNMC). A split that he considers necessary to address the complex development that the sector requires in the coming years and in which he has assured that "it does not contemplate a change of the current CNMC advisors specialized in energy, not as the PP did when it joined the old CNE in the current CNMV," he noted. At the moment, Ribera already has the support of the PNV for this project, which is expected to be underway before the end of the year.
