Saved by Bell. This is what happened to eight solar power plant projects in the province of Alicante. It would have expired this month had it not been for the central government’s approval of the decree stipulating the extension of processing times for three years.. And the fact is that the traffic congestion of the Generalitat during the commissioning of photovoltaic parks put the supporters in a difficult situation, given that they would lose their permission to connect to the electricity grid and at the same time they would have to do so. Restart files.
The processing of solar power plants is one of the biggest problems inherited by the current regional government. In fact, during Botànic’s tenure, requests for the construction of these parks began to accumulate due to the exasperating slowness in resolving the files. This meant that in five years only 74 installation files with a capacity of 899 megawatts were resolved in the province of Alicante, leaving 149 decisions for 1,967 megawatts in this case pending..
But what was most worrying was that eight of these projects remained in deep water, given that they were due to expire at the end of this January, with negative consequences for the project owners. This situation was condemned more than once by Marcos Lacruz, president of the Valencian Energy Sector Association (Avaesen), who warned: Apart from the loss of permits and bureaucratic difficulties, the assurances given would also be lost.
The government came to the rescue with a decree in which the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge extended the period for obtaining an operating permit by three years, adding another six months to obtain a construction permit.
This news has been well received by the current regional Executive, who has already implemented measures to speed up the processing of projects as much as possible. This is stated by sources from the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism. They emphasize that the approval of a new decree on renewable energies is imminent, with the aim of equalizing the regulations with those in other autonomies.
The reform will be expressed around four main axes, in particular, reducing the economic guarantees requested from project owners, ending the comprehensive revaluation of projects improved with technological advances, and strengthening the Administration with external personnel. and digitization of procedures. It is also planned to make cooperation agreements with professional organizations related to the sector.
More help for photovoltaic self-consumption
Beyond large-format solar power plants being processed for power generation, the Generalitat is also taking on an avalanche of projects for commercial self-consumption. So, as mentioned earlier, the regional government injected another 16 million euros in aid, which brought the budget to 92 million. 2,600 applications have been made in the province since 2021.