Spain begins construction of a major new facility renewable. In the last years of continuous and accelerating growth, records of expansion with new facilities and electricity production with green energy were repeated. However, in recent months there has been a sharp decline in one of the key statistics measuring the progress of the deployment of renewable energy sources and the procedures for their implementation.
Spanish Electricity Network (REE)As the manager of the electricity system and the operator of the high voltage network, it discloses to the public every month the data regarding the access permissions of wind and photovoltaic power plants and their connections to the grid. Records providing information about the network access capacity of facilities that currently have permission and are in operation; those who have permission but have not yet entered service; About projects for which permission has been requested but no decision has been received from the manager yet.
After years of constantly increasing figures, statistics of facilities currently in operation Dozens of renewable installations have disappeared in recent weeks Although it continued to operate effectively, this situation created uncertainty in some energy companies and some industry associations. Latest update published by REE reflects plants found in Spain wind and photovoltaics It operates with 42,500 megawatts (MW) of grid connection capacity, although it had previously exceeded 49,000 MW.
The expansion of renewable energy sources in Spain has not been interrupted or operating plants have started to shut down, but there has been a change in accounting that temporarily eliminates this data and additionally predicts that a new boom is approaching. Renewable energy sector in Spain: Hybridization of green plants.
Expansion of hybrid plants
Hybridization is a process that involves combining multiple energies in the same installation to make greater use of land and existing infrastructure for access to the electrical grid. The hybridization that will become most common is c.Place solar panels between wind turbines of wind farmsbut any technology can also be combined with some renewable technology or green electricity generation equipment can be combined with storage.
Red Eléctrica decided to separate the data of all facilities requesting hybridization from these monthly statistics. When an installation is hybridized, the technology is no longer all about wind or solar. and therefore they no longer appear in the statistical sections hitherto used. The group is working to improve the published information and soon include these new facility types as a specific section.
The data accumulated so far on plant hybridization demands predict that this method will have an important role in the national green sector. REE accumulates Hybridization requests for 6,800 megawatts of access capacity from the Prensa Ibérica group to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA to the power grid, as confirmed by official company sources. These are 6,800 MW that have disappeared from statistics and will reappear at some point, but already confirm the interest of the renewable energy sector in participating in this exercise to make the most of their installations.
Desired network access
Access points to the electrical grid have become the envy of energy companies. In some regions, grid saturation and the explosion of new renewable plants have turned these connection points into a scarce and highly contested asset, even leading to speculative moves to resell projects just to get permission to connect to the grid. The hybridization of different technologies in a single facility serves to better utilize the network connection and ensure greater stability in supply from the same discharge point.
Industry giants such as iberdrola, Endesa, NatureEDP or Action They have joined the strategy of hybridizing plants and have million-dollar plans to build new such facilities or renovate and adapt existing ones, both in Spain and other countries. In most cases these are projects to combine wind and photovoltaic energy in the same installation.