Spain's fat renewables backlog lighter by 39.6 GW since June law on grid access - report

Investors in Spanish renewables have renounced grid access rights to connect a total of 39.3 GW of new capacity, recovering EUR 1.57 billion (USD 1.90bn) in deposits, Spanish business daily El Economista reported, citing the ministry for the ecological transition.

The move is a result of a piece of legislation issued by the ministry in late June, in which the Spanish state gave project promoters three months to give up their access rights and claim deposits. The ministry’s offer expired on September 25.

Back in June, the ministry said that Spain was being flooded with requests for grid access for renewables, which, if ever connected, would amount to over 430 GW of generation capacity, or seven times more than what the country needs to meet its 2030 energy and climate objectives.

The majority of projects with access rights were lacking maturity and corresponding connection permits, prompting the ministry to revise the permitting process and put a stop to what it called "speculative movements" in the renewables sector.

To prevent hogging the rights, the new regulation imposed deadlines in the permitting chain that project promoters have to meet or risk losing all granted permits along with deposits.

As of October 31, wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totalling 121.7 GW have grid access rights, with requests sought for 47.6 GW more, according to Spanish grid operator Red Electrica de Espana (REE). By the end of October, REE denied access to 114.1 GW worth of wind and PV power generation.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.211)

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