The Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transformation (MITECO) has approved the construction of nearly 25GW of solar PV capacity in Spain.
The total installed solar PV capacity is 24,870 MW, distributed in 239 projects.MITECO has provided administrative construction authorizations (AAC in Spanish) for a total of 283 renewable energy generation projects, of which solar projects account for 90% of the contracted capacity.
MITECO is responsible for reviewing projects of more than 50 MW or located in more than one autonomous region.
A total of 428 renewable energy projects have initiated the AAC process, which means that 66% of the projects are authorized by MITECO.
In accordance with Royal Decree 23/2020, all projects approved by the AAC have been granted grid connection rights between December 31, 2017 and June 25, 2020, with a July 25, 2024 approval deadline.
All AAC-approved projects now have three years to come online, which will help Spain accelerate its goal of reaching 76GW of installed PV capacity by 2030. While not all projects will come to fruition, this will help drive new large-scale ground-mounted PV capacity in Spain, which totaled 5.6GW last year.
By the end of 2023, Spain will have more than 25.5 GW of installed PV capacity.Therefore, an additional 50 GW will be needed in the coming years if the targets set in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) are to be achieved.
MITECO estimates that all the renewable energy projects approved this month will require more than 17 billion euros ($18.4 billion) in investment, and that solar photovoltaics alone will create more than 260,000 jobs.
Earlier this week, MITECO also released guidelines for its Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Manufacturing Program, which will provide €750 million in funding through Spain's Recovery and Rehabilitation Program, designed to incentivize the production of equipment and components for technologies such as solar modules, cells, and electrolyzers.
General engineering contracting bottlenecks
This is not the first time MITECO has approved solar PV projects in bulk. Last year, 132 projects (with a total capacity of nearly 25GW) received favorable environmental decisions. These projects were connected to the grid between December 31, 2017 and June 25, 2020, with a January 25, 2023 deadline for environmental approval.
However, shortly after this announcement, in January 2023, some in the industry expressed concern about the lack of design, procurement, and construction workers to complete these projects.
Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5gBHZzh_lwpx_X5y6vvHKA
