The Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) plans to incorporate non-price criteria in its renewable energy auctions for which it has now opened a public consultation.
The ministry says the consultation will modify the Renewable Energy Economic Regime (REER) to help achieve the best possible design for the new renewable energy auctions.
Instead of price alone, under the new design, up to 30% of the criteria will be related to the issues of environmental sustainability, resilience and local socio-economic development. Till now, price bids were the main criteria to select winners (see Spain To Launch RE Auction On Jan. 26, 2021).
MITECO boss and Spanish Vice President Teresa Ribera Rodriguez said this tweaking of the design will continue to improve the orderly integration of renewables, so territories hosting these projects can really benefit from them.
The ministry launched the consultation after holding discussions and workshops with various stakeholders from environmental groups, agricultural organizations, promoters, territories, industry and civil society.
Rodriguez shared that the ministry has started working on various methodological guides to evaluate onshore and offshore renewable energy projects. These are aimed at improving zoning criteria to guide developers.
Responses to the consultation will be accepted till April 20, 2024. Further details are available on MITECO's website.
The ministry's move to include non-price criteria for renewable energy projects comes in the wake of denizens protesting against clean energy projects that harm landscape and local habitats. Recently, Spain saw demonstrations by locals in Zaragoza who demand their deployment in a planned and mutually agreed manner, according to local media reports.
The move is also aligned with the European Union's Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) under which the member states will need to factor in non-price criteria of sustainability and resilience for net zero technologies in public procurement or auctions (see EU Council & Parliament Agree Over Net-Zero Industry Act).
Spain targets to install 160 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, expanding its share in the total electricity production to 81%, comprising 76 GW solar PV (see Spain Raises Renewable Energy Ambition).
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Spain's cumulative installed solar PV capacity at the end of 2023 reached 28.7 GW out of 80.1 GW total renewable energy capacity.
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