MADRID, 29 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The wind sector has warned that the electrification of the economy “is not advancing at the necessary pace” so that it can accompany the renewable objectives set out in the new National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) by 2030.
In his speech at the opening of the Annual Wind Power Congress, the president of the Wind Power Business Association, Juan Diego Díaz, put this risk on the table and assured that the development of renewables must “mandatorily be supported by an appropriate electricity demand, in dimension and deadlines”.
Specifically, the government’s draft update of the PNIEC aspires to 105 gigawatts (GW) of new renewables in the decade. Thus, by the year 2030 it is expected to reach 62 gigawatts (GW) of wind power installed, with 3 GW corresponding to ‘offshore’ -compared to the 50 GW of the previous PNIEC-, as well as 76 GW of photovoltaic, including 19 GW of self-consumption -for the 39 GW of the 2020 ‘roadmap’-.
Thus, he pointed out that the electricity demand has plummeted in recent years, standing at levels similar to 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, or to those of two decades ago.
In this sense, he recognized that it is true that there has been an improvement in energy efficiency that can be transferred to that drop, but he linked this drop in electricity demand to the drop in the field, mainly industrial, “due to high prices.”
For this reason, he warned that the growth rate of electricity demand “is not giving sufficient signals” to absorb all those renewable projects that are expected to be developed, for which reason he estimated that in the end “they will be financed or it will mean a loss of value of existing assets”.
However, Díaz applauded the “more ambitious” objectives indicated in the PNIEC update, which thus reflect the requests that the sector had been making to raise the goals, although he pointed out the need to “expedite” the processing of projects.
In this regard, he stated that the six-month extension given by the Government to obtain construction authorization for renewable projects is “a relief.”
In any case, he indicated that maintaining the deadline for completing the project before exceeding five years from the start of the process “compresses” the deadlines more and supposes “greater tension” for the supply chain, which also puts compliance with the objectives is at risk and “opens the door” to builders from outside Europe.
For this reason, he pointed out that the European wind industry, despite being experiencing “complicated times” due to the rise in raw materials and inflation, must continue “designing and manufacturing” wind turbines and their components in Europe, “with European cost structures to continue leading global wind power”.
For her part, the Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, stressed that the wind sector is called upon to play a “very important” role in both the energy transition and reindustrialization.
In this regard, the minister assured that Spain does not only aspire to be a supplier of clean energy in the European context, but that it is facing “a historic opportunity” to promote reindustrialization in many areas. “It’s a country goal, we have to bet on it,” she added.
For this reason, he stated that the update to a “more ambitious” PNIEC is based on “viable” objectives that “adjust to the reality of 2023, consistent with a ‘pipeline’ and knowing that some projects will fall along the way and that they will appear new”.
Likewise, he recalled that another 1,000 million more will be mobilized for the value chain associated with all renewable energies, which will come out of the addendum, and that Brussels has already been asked to approve it as State aid to proceed “as soon as possible to its cast”.
