A total of 263 renewable energy projects, with an aggregate capacity of 12,299.5 MW, have obtained administrative authorisation throughout the third quarter of the year.
This is stated in a report by the Foro Sella Renewable Energy Observatory, prepared by Opina 360, which for the first time collects data from both the Official State Gazette and the official regional newspapers. The authorisations have been distributed almost equally between grants from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (127) and from the autonomous communities (136).
Most of the authorised power, 9,627 MW, belongs to projects processed by the central government, many of them affected by the need to reach this milestone before July 25, in accordance with the deadlines established by Royal Decree-Law 23/2020. Meanwhile, the regional executives – which are responsible for installations with an installed capacity of less than 50 MW – have issued construction authorisations for 2,672.5 MW.
By energy source, photovoltaic power has accounted for four out of every five megawatts authorised in the quarter, with a total of 10,060.8 MW. Construction permits have also been given for 2,237.1 MW of wind power and 1.6 of hydroelectric power.
From a territorial point of view, three communities concentrate more than half of the authorised power in this period: Castilla y León, with 2,500.2 MW; Castilla-La Mancha, with 2,371.9 MW; and Aragon, with 2,336.7 MW. They are followed by Andalusia with 1,554.4 MW. Next are Madrid (1,078.9 MW) and the Valencian Community (843.3 MW), which will experience a significant jump in renewable generation when they are put into operation. Catalonia is also taking off with the construction permit for 257.6 MW.
“The large communities that are already the main renewable generators in the country continue to advance at a high pace, but we are beginning to see that others that are behind, such as Madrid, the Valencian Community or Catalonia are catching up,” said the director of Opina 360, Juan Francisco Caro.
“Although all the projects have connection permits, one of the keys now is that the transport and distribution networks grow in parallel, to avoid bottlenecks. There is consensus in the sector about the need for greater investment in networks to bring energy closer to places where there is demand. And this is especially important so that communities such as Catalonia can catch up with the leaders in renewables and cover the demand for renewable energy, both domestic and industrial,” explains Caro.
25 projects have advanced to a previous phase in the third quarter, having reached the milestone of obtaining prior administrative authorization. They represent a total of 422.1 MW, of which 379.1 correspond to photovoltaic plants and 43 to wind energy. Only one of the permits has been processed by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (20 MW), while the rest of the authorizations have been issued by the regional administrations.
On the other hand, throughout the third quarter, favorable environmental impact reports have been published for 70 projects, with an accumulated capacity of 1,975.6 MW. Photovoltaics takes centre stage, with 86.7% of the total generation capacity (1,716.1 MW). As for the responsible administrations, 57 of the reports have been issued by the autonomous communities, although they only represent a little more than half of the capacity that has received environmental authorisation (1,107.3 MW).
Andalusia leads the communities with the highest volume of renewables with environmental approval in the third quarter, with 799.1 MW. This is more than double that of the next region, Castilla y León, with 343.7 MW, ahead of Murcia (274), Catalonia (229) and Castilla-La Mancha (125.8).
As for the projects that are in the most initial phase, 201 renewable energy files have been exposed to public information during the third quarter, with a total generation capacity of 4,818.3 MW. More than four-fifths of this capacity (82.4%) corresponds to photovoltaic plants (3,972.5 MW) and the rest to wind projects (845.8 MW).
Of all of them, there are 57 projects, with a total capacity of 917.9 MW, which are in their most initial phase, with the request for prior authorization. The rest (144 projects with 3,900.4 MW) have gone through public information to also obtain the construction authorization and, in some cases, the recognition of public utility.
The vast majority of these renewable installations (168) are under the processing of the autonomous communities. However, they represent less than half of the generation capacity in public information (2,133.2 MW, 44.3% of the total). The bulk is the responsibility of the Government, through the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.
In the third quarter, Castilla-La Mancha was the community with the highest volume of power in projects that are publicly available: 1,149.4 MW, all of them photovoltaic and mainly through files processed by the Government. In second place is Aragón, with 868.9 MW, of which two thirds are of photovoltaic origin. Behind are two other communities with a large renewable weight, Castilla y León (736.7) and Andalusia (666.2) and the Valencian Community (572.1), which is registering a take-off in new projects
Ten projects, with 673.6 MW of installed power, have received an unfavorable environmental report during the third quarter of the year. On this occasion, the negative statements have been concentrated almost exclusively on photovoltaic generation (620.6 MW).
The most affected communities have been Madrid, with 379.5 MW rejected, and Castilla-La Mancha, with 161.1 MW. Projects have also been rejected in Castilla y León (78 MW), Catalonia (30), the Valencian Community (20) and La Rioja (5).
Ultimately, the administrations have declared the rejection of 26 renewable energy projects in the third quarter, with a total capacity of 1,404.5 MW. Almost all of them have been rejected for having obtained an unfavorable environmental report and, as a consequence, having lost the connection permits.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition is the one that has archived the largest amount of generation, with 1,108.6 MW, compared to the 295.9 of the autonomous communities. According to sources, 838.8 MW rejected were of photovoltaic origin and the remaining 565.7 were of wind power.
The communities most affected by these rejections in the third quarter, by far, have been Aragón (with 742 MW of photovoltaic power) and Castilla-La Mancha (with 366.6 MW of wind power). In both cases, the projects were rejected by the Ministry. Regional governments have also shelved projects in another six communities.
On the other hand, during the third quarter, construction authorization has been granted for five storage projects, which accumulate an installed capacity of 610 MW. Almost 94% of this capacity is concentrated in a single project, the Navaleo reversible hydroelectric plant in León. The rest is distributed between the Basque Country (24 MW), Aragón (6.1), the Canary Islands (4.5) and the Balearic Islands (2.3). In addition, prior authorization has been granted for three storage facilities, with a total installed capacity of 20 MW. One located in Extremadura (10 MW) and two others in Navarra (10).
The 26 storage projects that were presented to the public in the third quarter are currently in the process of being processed. Of these, 23 are linked to new battery projects and the rest to hybridisations with photovoltaic parks. In total, they add up to 274 MW of installed capacity. Almost 40% of this capacity is located in Castilla-La Mancha (108 MW).
