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The Spanish Solar market is heading for an enormous growth with the region expected to benefit from a huge amount of renewable generation.
The Spanish Solar market is on course to register a compound annual growth rate of 8%, now reaching the same levels from before the pandemic.
A combination of supportive government policies, incentives and a community wide acceptance of renewable electricity generation are expected to be the driving factors of the growth of Solar PV in Spain.
Spanish Government Policy for Solar Growth
To meet Europe’s energy and climate targets by 2030, European Union state members (including Spain) established the National Energy and Climate Plans to address climate change between 2021-2030. Their main objectives are:
- A 21% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to 1990 levels.
- 42% increase of end-use energy used to be from renewables.
- 70% of electricity used to be from renewables.
In 2018, the Spanish government scrapped the ‘Sun Tax’ to increase the installation of residential Solar. The ‘Sun Tax’ was originally charging homes that were fitted with Solar PV an additional 7% to stay connected to the grid.
Abolishment of this tax is expected to increase public support of Solar and increase installation of Solar PV. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Spanish government actively encouraged the Spanish public to install Solar PV and generate their own electricity.
The Spanish government also formed The Strategic Energy Technology Plan and The Low Carbon Emission Strategy 2050. Both initiatives have led to Spain becoming a global leader in reducing their carbon footprint and in the renewable energy market.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released the ‘Spain Energy Policy’ review, highlighting that Spain is targeting 75% of electricity to be generated from renewables by 2030. This target will total 61.5gw of total renewable energy capacity with a annual growth rate of 7%.
Spanish Solar Market Trends
In Spain, Solar PV is expected to dominate the renewable energy market. The significant decrease in global cost of Solar has led to an increase in installation. So much so, distributed Solar PV systems for commercial and industrial sectors in Spain have caught up with the utility sector systems.
In 2021, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found that renewable electricity accounted for 61.517mw in Spain, 25.9% of this was from Solar PV.
Spain showed a historic compound annual growth rate of 14.69% in terms of Solar energy capacity installed between 2015-2021. Net capacity equalled 15.9gw in 2021.
The Spanish government are likely to reward 1.8gw of Solar PV energy, to interested parties, through renewable auctions until 2025. Spanish Solar projects are targeted to achieve 31gw by 2030 with a total of $302million to be invested into the projects. Construction of projects are set to begin in 2025.
Compañía Española de Petróleos announced 3 Solar PV projects equating to 400mw of capacity in Spain.
Catalonian Solar Market Report
In addition to the Spain’s rapid growth in Solar, the region of Catalonia has also shown impressive growth.
With a current GDP of 270.7billion, and a per capita GDP of 31.531, Catalonia’s 7.89million strong population are expected to feel the full benefit of increased use of Solar.
The government in Catalonia have set a region wide target of 12gw of renewable energy by 2030 with the region targeting to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Catalonia’s renewable capacity currently stands at 3gw with the objective to increase the share of electricity in energy demand to 34% by 2030 and 76% by 2050.
Additional targets include reducing final energy consumption by more than 30% and cut energy intensity by 57% by 2050 relative to 2017 levels.
39,118 new Solar panels were installed in Catalonia alone in 2022, which is more installations than the previous 20years.
Conclusion
The Spanish Solar market is achieving renewable energy targets at an impressive rate. A combination of government policy, community engagement and achievable targets have led to an incredible increase in the installation and use of Solar PV. Spain achieving its renewable targets ahead of schedule have allowed the country to become a global leader in Solar PV and achieving net zero targets.
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