Spain's Solar PV Industry Association (Asociación de la Industria Fotovoltaica, ASIF) has requested the Ministry of Industry to reopen the negotiations to design the regulation that is urgently needed by the industry. ASIF is happy that the country's National Energy Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía, CNE) has recommended the government to create a new Real Decreto (Royal Decree) not including the most negative aspects of the draft.
There is still uncertainty in Spain's solar PV environment, as there is a loophole from September 20, 2008 (end of the 661/2007 RD). ASIF thinks that unless this uncertainty is gone, international and domestic invesors will not have trust in the market.
The solar PV industry is aware, however, that the growth rates seen, of up to 500% per year, need to be adjusted. ASIF has suggested a growth rate of about 20% yearly.
For this, ASIF has proposed a growth model based on plants with capacity below 10 MW that incentivates solar PV on buidings, and drops in the feed-in tariff of 10-15% from October 2008 until 2010, and an annual drop in the feed-in tariff of 5% from then on, similar to the tariff system existing in Germany today.
And looking at the long term, ASIF expects grid parity before 2020 in their ‘Fotovoltaica 20’ report. This might depend not so much about the existence or nature of feed-in tariffs or subsidies but rather on the availability of cheaper technology.
For additional information:
www.asif.org
