General Framework
General framework that Renewable Energies present in Spain remains quite advantageous. The objective is to achieve a 12% (from 6% nowadays) renewable energies contribution to the energy national balance by year 2010, in line with the content of the European Union White Paper. This objective requires different measures, both at national and regional level, to be approved in order to promote the development of renewable energies.
Photovoltaic solar energy was, until recent years, one of the most unknown renewable energies. Nowadays photovoltaic energy has a very positive perception on the part of the society, thanks to the realization of singular projects, publicity campaigns, and a major presence in the media. On the other hand the solar resource in Spain is very important, so photovoltaic solar energy can help to reduce the dependence from fossil fuels and contribute to improve the environment by reducing polluting gases.
All these reasons, together with the legal obligation for the utilities of buying at an advantageous price the energy generated by photovoltaic systems connected to the grid, are promoting the advance of PV energy development. It can be shown in the amount of photovoltaic installations, mainly grid connected, which have experienced a very important growth in Spain during the last years.
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National Programme
The Spanish Government has opted for renewable energies to make its contribution more important to the national energy balance. Spain's first step in promoting renewable energies was the development of the Renewable Energy Program 1991-2000, whose main objective was to increase the contribution of renewable energies to the national balance of energy. In the photovoltaic solar energy area, the objective was to increase the installed power of 2,5 MW during the Program. These figures have been easily exceeded and photovoltaic power has increased by 5 MW since the start of the Program.
In order to continue with this strategy, a new Plan for the promotion of renewable energies was approved by the Government at the end of 1999. The new Plan for the Promotion of Renewable Energy during the period 2000-2010, will serve to set a new pace for the development of these energy sources and consolidate Spanish policy on renewable energy, in line with the content of the European Union White Paper.
Concerning photovoltaic solar energy the main measures and incentives included in the new Plan are:
- Public subsidies to R&D projects whose objectives are the improvement of PV technologies and the improvement of production, commercialization and installation processes.
- Public subsidies to the installation of PV systems, both off-grid and grid-connected systems.
- Establishment of a new regulation for the connection of PV systems to the grid.
- Tax benefits for PV installations.
The implementation of this Plan has presented a first important result during the year 2000: the approval of the Royal Decree 1663/2000 which establishes the technical conditions for the connection of photovoltaic systems to the low voltage grid. This is a very important step in order to get a major penetration of photovoltaic installations into energy system.
On the other hand, the Royal Decree 2818/1998 which establishes the incentives
to photovoltaic solar energy injected to the grid has not modified their contribution
during the year 2000, its value remaining at 0,4 euro for installations under
5 kW and 0,2 euro for installations larger than 5 kW. [ Top
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Research, Development and Demonstration
Cells
The main objective of manufacturers and research centres is to reduce costs and to increase the efficiency and the reliability of photovoltaic modules to promote the competitiveness of solar PV energy
in Spain.
- CIEMAT
- PV Modules Optimized for Building Integration - PV-MOBI.
The project, co-ordinated by CIEMAT has the objective of developing new designs of PV modules for building integration applications based in the study of its optical, thermal and electrical generation characteristics. At present the final prototypes have been manufactured and are being tested.
- Improvement of Photovoltaic Modules. Measure for Withstanding Electrical and Thermal Effects caused by reverse biasing of cells - IMOTHEE
The objective of IMOTHEE project is to improve the design of photovoltaic modules of different cell technologies with respect to the hot-spot safety measures for longer lifetimes and a greater system efficiency.
- Study of the Degradation of PV Modules
Electrical and thermal characterization of modules that apparently have suffered degradation. Infrared thermography techniques have been used to detect failures in PV solar modules.
- IES (Institute of Solar Energy)
- Crystalline silicon
A dynamic model has been developed which clarified the impurity extraction process. Thank to this method, bifacial cells have been obtained with efficiencies of 17,7% (back face) and 15,2% (front face). These are the best values recorded in the world with this material.
- Thin film
IES together with Ioffe Institute have developed solar cells of GaAs with an efficiency of 26,2% to 1000X and 25% to 2000X. Photovoltaic concentrator
Design and performance of a solar concentrator (1300X). Using AsGa cells to 1000X, IES has achieved 20% of efficiency with this system.
- ISOFOTON
- PV venetian store: PV module which combines bifacial and concentration cells.
- PV MOBI: Big PV modules to integrate in buildings
- INFLATCOM: Concentration modules (1000 X) with AsGa
- HISICON: Concentration modules (200-500 X) with Si
Inverters
The main Spanish companies involved in the development of inverters for PV applications are ENERTRON and ATERSA. During this year, ENERTRON has developed inverters of 630 kW and 1 MW to work with high DC voltages. On the other hand, ATERSA has developed a digital control system for grid-connected inverters.
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Implementation
- "Grid-connected PV plant in "Palacio de La Moncloa" - Madrid
A 40 kW grid-connected PV plant has been installed in Madrid, in the gardens of the Palacio de la Moncloa, official residence of the Spanish President. This project consists of the PV integration in a special structure, where the President can receive his guests for receptions, press meetings and others uses. The technical objective of the project is to develop PV solutions adequate for the integration of PV in open areas. To achieve this goal, new modules were developed together by the three PV Spanish manufacturers with a new design based on both flat and curved surfaces. Four elements are important in this project: reliability and costs, aesthetics, technical quality and monitoring and energy.
The building integration concepts, support structure and civil works of the installation was carried out by IBERDROLA who also performed the grid-connection. Other collaborators of the project were IDAE, IES (ETSITM-UPM), CENTRO PARA LA CONSERVAÇAO DE LA ENERGÍA, ENERTRON, BP SOLAR, ISOFOTON and ATERSA. The project was supported by the EU.
- Grid-connection in the New Technologies Building
This year, ATERSA has performed the installation of a 17,28 kWp photovoltaic system connected to grid in the new technology building in Cádiz. The main goal of this project is the self supplying of some internal networks of the building and also the research and development of this type of energy. To achieve this objective, there are an acquisition system and a monitoring system. The photovoltaic modules are located on the roof of the building as the figure shows.
- Photocampa
This project consists of 318 kW photovoltaic plant connected to grid in which the modules are integrated on parking-lot structures. This installation is located in Tarragona and covers an area of 5 000 m2. Also, it is researching the possibility to use this PV installations to charge batteries of hybrid or electric cars. The partners of the project are ISOFOTON, SUNWATT FRANCE, BIOHAUS, ICAEN, Newcastle PV Aplications Centre, and BERGË Y CIA owner of the campa.
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Industry Status
At present, there are 3 important manufacturers of photovoltaic cells and modules in Spain which are developing new technologies to improve the efficiency and cost. These manufacturers are ISOFOTON, ATERSA, BP-SOLAREX. The technologies, which these manufacturers are developing, are mainly thin-film cells, concentration cells, and photovoltaic modules to integrate on roofs. The production of modules and PV cells is represented in Table 1. In the scope of power conditioning systems, Spanish manufacturers are developing new equipments, mainly connected to grid, with a wide range of power.
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Market Development
Nowadays development of the photovoltaic market in Spain is strongly tied to the existence of subsidy and promotions programs for this type of energy. The main measures to promotion photovoltaic solar energy can be summarized as follows.
Renewable Energies Plan 2000-2010. This new Plan offers economic and regulatory measures to favour photovoltaic solar energy. Economic measures have not been defined in the new Plan yet but it is expected that new lines of public subsidies for photovoltaic installations will appear in a short period of time. According to regulatory measures the most important one is the new law which regulates the technical conditions of the connection of PV systems to the grid.
Regional Plans for the Promotion of Renewable Energy. Besides the National Plan, several Spanish Autonomous Regions have developed specific programs to support renewable energies. Concerning photovoltaic solar energy, these programs subsidize PV installations, both off-grid and grid connected. The subsidy concerned is about 30-35% of the total installation cost.
The Royal Decree 2818/1998 provides an advantageous power rate to kWh produced by photovoltaic solar facilities connected to grid. Utilities must buy photovoltaic electricity at 0,4 EUR/kWh for systems of less than 5 kW and at 0,2 EUR/kWh for systems of more than 5 kW.
This sort of measures, together with a major knowledge and acceptance of photovoltaic energy on the part of the public, have contributed to the constant growth of photovoltaic sector in recent years. This photovoltaic market growth is reflected in the increase of new companies devoted to engineering, commercialization and installation of photovoltaic systems.
In year 2000 the total PV power installed in Spain was about 10 MW. During that year power installed experimented an increase of 12% with regard to year 1999. The major power percentage corresponds to isolated systems although grid-connected systems are the ones that are experiencing a bigger development.
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Future Outlook
Isolated PV systems present a wide range of applications perfectly defined, so its market share is stabilized. Grid-connected PV systems are those that present the best growth opportunities due to the regulatory frame existing nowadays and it is foreseeable that this sort of systems will be predominant in a few years.
Within grid-connected systems innovation will be the key to change the power busines. For this reason building integration offers one of the most promising ways for the development of photovoltaic market. Photovoltaics can be installed on a wide range of surfaces and can be integrated into materials such as glazing, opening up the possibility of combining energy production with other functions of the building envelope, such as roof and facade integration.
Because of continuing price decreases, some time in the near future, whether it's 5-6, or 10-12 years, the price of photovoltaic is going to be in the competitive range against retail electricity. At that point, customers are going to have the cost-effective option, and are going to exercise that option, of choosing photovoltaic solar energy. Despite uncertainties of this time of transition as utility systems undergo restructuring and begin to face competition, now is the time to move forward with serious grid-connected PV commercialization and to develop and implement utility PV business strategies. The successful, accelerated commercialization of the domestic, grid-connected
PV market needs to be a collaborative effort of many participants. Utilities, local agencies and different companies involved in this subject must join together.
Manufacturers need to invest now in this market development and in new production, to create a profitable market for the future.
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Acknowledgements
This report has been produced with the collaboration of BPSOLAREX, ENERTRON, ATERSA, ISOFOTON, IES, CIEMAT.
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Table 1. Modules manufacturers in Spain
| Company |
Cell Production
[MW] |
Production Capacity
[MW] |
| Atersa/Astrasolar |
2 |
3,8 |
| BP Solar Espana |
7 |
10,0 |
| Isofoton |
6 |
10,0 |
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Further reading about Spain
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