• Spain’s Canary Islands government wants to launch its own auction of wind and solar PV
  • By July 31, 2017, it plans to submit details for the auction to the National Competition Market Commission
  • Government of the archipelago is not in favor of continuing with what is known as ‘sun tax’ in rest of Spain  

The Canary Islands of Spain is in the process of launching its own auction of wind and solar PV technologies. The Minister of Economy, Industry, Commerce and Knowledge Pedro Ortega met with the Spanish Secretary of State for Energy, Daniel Navia to discuss the plans. Bidding details once finalized will be submitted to the National Competition Market Commission (NCMC) before July 31, 2017.

The Canary Islands government is keen on renewables along with storage technology and wants to encourage research and development projects related to clean power generation.

The government of the archipelago reportedly wants to do away with the ‘sun tax’ which penalizes Spanish consumers who use solar power through self-generation.

According to Spanish PV association UNEF, Spain installed 12% more PV in 2016 YoY. However, it was still very low at 55 MW (see Spain Installs 55 MW PV In 2016).

On July 18, 2017 Spain plans to hold its second auction for utility scale solar and wind power. In the first auction held this year, PV technology was allotted a mere 1 MW with 2,979 MW going to wind.

The Spanish government was supposed to launch a renewable energy auction solely for its island regions in the first four months of 2017 (see RE Auction For Spanish Islands Soon), but this has yet to happen.