Use your imagination. This is what the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Trade and Tourism is doing to remove the obstacle to the processing of solar power plants in the Valencian Community in general and in the province of Alicante in particular. The General Directorate of Energy is working on two lines in particular. On the one hand, It is in talks with professional organizations for cooperation agreements that will speed up the files. On the other hand, it plans to implement a digital platform that aims to coordinate different departments and prevent duplication.
The processing of solar power plants is one of the biggest problems inherited by the current regional government. It was during Botany’s tenure Applications to build a solar power plant were piling up due to the exasperating slowness in processing the files.This leaves the Valencian Community currently at the bottom in the deployment of renewable energies. Actually, Only 231 projects have been implemented in the entire Valencian Community in five yearsThis brought the total to 2,761 megawatts. Only 18 of them, with a total power of 152 megawatts, are in operation. In the province of Alicante, there are 74 resolved files with a power of 899 megawatts, while only five with a power of 44 megawatts have been put into service.
The delays were partly driven by differences between different departments in the previous Administration, such as the Region led by PSPV and the Ecological Transition and Economy led by Compromís. So much so that these delays were one of the arguments put on the table to justify the dismissal of Mireia Mollà as Minister of Ecological Transition.
At this point, when the problem falls into the hands of the new Government, different attempts are made to defuse the situation. For this reason, General Directorate of Energy and professional associations related to the sector are working on the legal framework for cooperation.Emulating what is already underway at the Ministry of Environment. As sources in the regional department explain, the purpose of this is to start with simple procedures and then tackle more complex ones. One of those where it is believed that action can begin immediately is economic guarantees. There are currently delays of about three months and could be reduced to one week.. The idea is that the schools act as a filter to prevent review of files that don’t even make it past the first cut and contribute to processing congestion.
Another ongoing initiative is the launch of a digital platform.. Regarding this issue, Regional Industry Minister Felipe Carrasco stated that this tool, which can be accessed over the internet, will serve the electronic presentation of documents and monitoring of files. «The aim, as he emphasized, In addition to preventing duplication, it allows projects to be monitoredalways with the goal of providing the support they urgently need right now.
Similarly, the interministerial commission on renewable energy will review and simplify the legal and regulatory framework for the use of photovoltaics in order to “eliminate redundancies and accelerate the approval process,” according to Carrasco. He also added that standardized processes will be developed for processing files to facilitate review and approval of similar projects. “Thus it will be possible to attract investment in this sector, as well as significantly increase the necessary photovoltaic energy production in the Valencian Community,” he said. On the other hand, in the same commission The need for continuous training of officials was mentioned Responsible for reviewing files and engaging citizen participation mechanisms to address local concerns.
There are 149 projects waiting for solution in Alicante province
The Valencian Community currently has 415 solar power plant files with a global power of 5,547 megawatts, and resolution is awaited. Of the total, 149 of 1,967 megawatts correspond to the province of Alicante. Moreover, in the second district, eight of these cases must be decided before the end of next January to prevent them from expiring.
The Generalitat is responsible for the processing of solar power plants up to 50 megawatts, since after that the responsibility falls on the Ministry of Ecological Transition. However, there are also facilities with different authorizations on the list.