Spain’s government has announced it is planning a 500MW tender for wind power, which will include both re-powering and new projects.
The Spanish Wind Power Association (AEE) says that the announcement from the government’s Energy, Industry and Tourism Ministry (MINETUR) is a “recognition that the country needs to install more wind capacity in order to comply with its European Union 2020 renewables target.” However AEE notes that the tender proposal was made without consulting the wind sector, and that it does not “resolve the juridical uncertainty generated by the current regulatory situation.”
AEE notes that the 500MW the the government plans to auction are well below the between 4.553GW and 6.473GW that the Ministry has indicated are necessary in the 2020 planning documents which it published in December. It points out that the Spanish wind industry is suffering a continued lack of orders due to the changes in regulation that the government has carried out in the last two years, and that it “needs clear signals in order not to take its factories and jobs abroad.”