News

Please send us news about clean-technology companies, trends, and industry events. All materials are subject to editorial review. E-mail us at editor@cleanedge.com.

indexes

Clean Edge Stock Indexes: Tracking the Performance of U.S.-Traded Clean-Energy and Global Wind and Smart Grid Infrastructure Companies.

Subscribe to Clean Edge RSS

Previous Story
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /nfs/c03/h04/mnt/56426/domains/cleanedge.com/html/news/story.php on line 150
| Next Story

Spain's Government Makes Concession on Solar Cap, But Resentment Simmers

September 5, 2008
Source: New Energy Finance

The Spanish government will temporarily lift a cap on new solar power capacity above an earlier proposed level, in a seeming nod to industry pressure, press reports and insiders say.

The ministry of industry, tourism and trade now plans to allow up to 450MW of capacity in 2009 and 2010, according to multiple media reports. That is above the annual 300MW cap suggested by the ministry in a draft proposal to the Spanish energy commission in July.

A ministry official said he was unable to confirm or deny the reports, but did say the government was likely to issue a final proposal in late September. The generous solar feed-in tariff expires on September 29th.

Though an apparent concession to the Spanish solar industry, the temporary lifting of the cap is far below the 1GW sought by many developers. Experts' forecasts for total installed Spanish PV capacity in 2008 ranges between 800MW and more than 1GW.

Meanwhile, the government proposal to slash tariffs to 0.33 euros/kWh for rooftop-mounted projects and 0.29 euros/kWh for ground-mounted projects, with depreciation of tariffs up to 10% possible in the event of continued strong demand for solar power, is thought to remain intact.

Industry groups have made their dissatisfaction clear in a concerted media campaign.

'We will keep making noise,' said Jose Galindez, president of Spanish turnkey developer Solarpack Corporacion Tecnologica and outspoken member of solar industry group Asociacion Empresarial Fotovoltaica (AEF). 'We are very disappointed.'

If industry's demands are not met, said Galindez, 'projects underway will not be completed and jobs that are today fulfilling photovoltaic power will have to be de-localised somewhere else'.

But another informed source close to the discussions between industry groups and the ministry told New Energy Finance that the government has the Spanish solar industry's best interests in mind.

Spain's generous feed-in tariff needs adjustment, said the source, because proceeds from the subsidies benefit German and Chinese PV manufacturers more than budding domestic hopefuls.