In May, our Spanish sister publication, Energías Renovables, published the 100th edition of its monthly magazine. The milestone was marked with a party in Madrid attended by around 150 representatives from the country’s renewables sector.
During the event, the publication’s founders and directors, Luis Merino and Pepa Mosquera [see inset, second from right and centre], announced that the magazine (in Spanish) would also be available from now as a free pdf download on both the Energías Renovables and Renewable Energy Magazine websites.
Those present were also told about Haya Communicación’s efforts to go global through the amERica website, aimed at the American continent, and our very own Renewable Energy Magazine, which are run by journalists around the world. “With their involvement and your support, we will continue to remain at the heart of clean energy journalism for many more years to come,” said Mosquera.
€20 billion for renewables
The 100th edition celebrations on Wednesday came on the eve of the presentation at the Genera trade fair in Madrid of the final draft of Spain’s new National Renewable Energy Plan 2011 – 2020. An outline of the plan was given by the Director General of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), Alfonso Beltrán García-Echániz. The plan which will replace the previous National Renewable Energy Plan 2005 –2010 is the most ambitious to date and the first to cover a 10 year period.
Beltrán was joined in the presentation by Jaume Margarit, Director of Renewable Energies at IDAE, who was also among the speakers at Energías Renovables’ celebrations the night before. The draft plan will remain open to discussion and will be revealed to the public in the near future, to enable trade associations and any other interested sectors to help the Ministry of Industry draw up a final version of the plan “which everyone is comfortable with,” said Beltrán. Indeed, this week, the ministry met with regional government representatives as part of what Beltrán described as another milestone in the calendar for rolling out the plan.
In short, the details provided by IDAE yesterday at the Genera International Energy and Environment Trade Fair show the plan will cost €20 billion and is expected to mobilise around €63 billion of private investment ("for which we are trying to develop an appropriate framework ", emphasised Margarit). According to IDAE, the public funds and private capital could lead to the creation of around 84,000 jobs and save the Spanish economy some €26 billion.
The targets set out in the PER are that by 2020, 20.8% of the gross final energy demand will be met using renewable energy, 11.3% of the total energy consumed by the transport sector will be generated using renewable sources, and 39% of electricity will come from clean sources. The plan establishes specific capacity increases during the period 2011-2020 of: 14,256 MW of onshore wind; 750 MW of offshore wind; 3,483 MW of photovoltaic; 4,168 MW of solar thermal electric; 100 MW of marine energy (wave and tidal); 635 MW of hydroelectric; 1,125 MW of biogas; and 817 MW of solid biomass.
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