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Spain Photovoltaic technology status and prospects Manuel Blasco, Centro Nacional de Energias Renovable, CENER |
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The most relevant characteristic of the year 2004 in Spain has been the introduction
of a new legal support system for renewable energy sources. The new Royal Decree
426/2004, which came into force in March, represents a remarkable attempt to encourage
the penetration of renewable energy sources in the Spanish energy sector. This
new piece of legislation replaces the Royal Decree 2818/1998.
From the viewpoint of PVPS, the differences between the two support mechanisms can be summarized as follows:
The incentive is intended to put economic pressure on PV generators to sell their electricity in the market, like any other kind of generators. Alternatively, the owner can decide not to go to the market, and in this case he obtains a tariff of 300 % of TMR for the first 25 years and 240 % afterwards, as well as a fee for compensation of reactive power. The owner can switch from one possibility to the other, but within an interval of at least one year.
The entire support scheme will be applied until the total PV installedcapacity reaches 150 MW. The previous RD 2818 established a differentiation between plants smaller and larger than 5kWp. Remuneration through market price did not exist, and no guarantee of power was paid.
It is worth noting that the objective of the Plan de Fomento de las Energias Renovables (PFER), approved in December 1999 was to have 135 MW installed between the years 2000 and 2010. The general aim of the new scheme is to give the same treatment to all kinds of electricity generation technologies, taking into consideration the special characteristics of renewable energy sources and their favourable environmental impact.
Moreover, direct support for investments in PVPS is also provided, both through IDAE (the Spanish institute for diversification and energy savings) and through some regional authorities. Since the IDAE scheme (20 % of the investment) was designed for the old support system, some distortions were arisen when the RD 486 came into force, since the number of applications for installations of 5 kWp or less diminished and were replaced by applications for much larger 100kWp units. It was necessary to devote more funds for PVPS support.
However, the present tendency seems to be to eliminate direct support for investments, and to encourage PV plants only through feed-in tariffs. Experience has shown that subventions to investments create much bureaucracy and are quite complicated and timeconsuming. According to recent studies, a feed-in tariff system should be sufficient to give the necessary support to grid-connected PVPS. Of course this is not the case for isolated systems, for which direct support for investments is necessary.
It is still too early to perform an evaluation of the new mechanism, but it seems to be working quite well. As of 30 November 2004, the installed PV capacity (grid-connected) was estimated to reach 15 MWp, and the generation was slightly over 15 GWh. This implies an average of approximately 1 000 hours, and since, given the normal weather conditions in Spain, at least 1 200 - 1 300 hours are to be expected, it can be concluded that many plants have been commissioned during the last months of the year, after the RD 486 came into force.
The public perception of PV in Spain has been very positive in the past, due to their environmental advantages, but many people found it too expensive and too complicated to install; since the legal procedures are complex and time-consuming. The new approach seems to be a step in the right direction.
Nevertheless, there are still some problems to be solved. One of them is the lack in some cases of legal definition of the technical requirements for connection to the grid of PV systems. In such cases no mention is made of PVPS, and since these systems have special characteristics, the present pieces of regulation should be amended to take them into consideration.
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There are some other programmes not exclusively devoted to PV as well, but clearly interrelated: electronics, integration with other power sources, etc.
Other activities are related to satisfy the necessities of the Spanish PV industry related to certification of new products and components, creation of new standards and methodologies for validation and analysis of new PV systems, and improvement of services related to the entire PV chain.
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The Spanish PV industry has made a considerable effort in investments during the past few years. From January 1999 to October 2004 the cumulative investments of the PV sector (including both manufacturers and installers) have reached 220 MEUR.
The total workforce reached 3 700 direct employments in October 2004, of which 1 485 correspond to manufacturers of cells and modules, and approximately 1 000 to installers. The corresponding total figure by the end of 2003 was 2 680, and the difference seems to reflect the strong impulse that the PV Spanish industry is experiencing as a result of the new support scheme (see above). Furthermore, there are another 1 840 indirect employments. Therefore, the total workforce related to the Spanish PV industry can be estimated to have reached a total of 5 540.
The perspectives for the immediate future are optimistic. The public perception of PV is more and more favourable, and the support mechanisms seem to be working adequately. In the past, and due to the limitation of size to 5 kW, many “solar farms” were created (installations of, say, 100 kW with several owners, none of them owning more than 5 kW, and promoted by a unique body, in charge of connection and maintenance services). The number of these farms will probably increase, since the limitation to 5kW no longer exists, and there is a growing public consciousness of the economic profitability of PV power plants. What remains to be seen, nevertheless, is the development of larger PV plants of more than 100 kW, since, as indicated above, these plants can sell their production directly in the electricity market. However, there is still no experience on this (large plants commissioned before March 2004 can either remain under the treatment defined by RD 2818/98 until 2007, or switch to RD 486/2004).
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