Spain's Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO) has updated its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), increasing its solar PV target to 76GW by 2030.
The new draft has been brought to the public consultation stage with a deadline of September 4, 2023, almost doubling the previously set PV installed capacity of 39GW. From the updated 76GW target, 19GW will come from self-use capacity. Spain is committed to achieving a total installed capacity target of 214GW in 2030.
By the end of 2022, the total installed solar photovoltaic capacity in Spain will be close to 20GW, adding nearly 3.7GW of ground-mounted photovoltaic installed capacity in 2022 alone.
Spain's revised draft raises solar PV incremental target to 37GW by 2030 from previously planned 39GW
The previous NECP was issued in 2020. The European Union has since raised its target through the REPowerEU update strategy, which is committed to achieving a 740GW solar PV power generation target by 2030. The "Fit for 55" package aims to increase the share of renewable energy to 42.5% by 2030, meeting the need to accelerate European energy independence.
Among other things outlined in the recent draft: Spain aims to have 81 percent of electricity generated from renewable sources by the end of the century. The amount of energy storage has barely changed, as the Spanish government is only committed to 2GW more than its previous target, reaching 22GW by 2030, and green hydrogen is reportedly expected to almost triple Spanish electrolyser capacity from the current 4GW to 11GW .
The current Spanish government is expected to submit an updated version to the European Commission by June 2024.
In addition, at this week's Cabinet of Ministers meeting, the Spanish government granted a six-month extension for renewable energy projects that are still seeking construction permits. This comes as a relief to Spain's renewable energy industry, as many projects will not be able to obtain construction permits by the July 25, 2023 deadline.
Rafael Benjumea, president of the Spanish solar association UNEF, welcomed the delay as "good news for the industry", arguing that the deadline poses a threat to the viability of projects and that Spain will start to face bottlenecks in finding contractors to come. Construction of more than 25GW of solar projects, which made positive environmental progress earlier this year.