"The Spanish solar PV industry is paralyzed, or destroyed"

It seems that the new Royal Decree will be passed in the coming weeks. However, no one is sure about its contents. The latest draft contains some new points: The main one concerns cps. So far, the Ministry of Industry had granted a 300 MW cap for 2009, including 200 MW for rooftop and 100 for ground; in the latest there is an additional "extraordinary' cap of 200 MW and 100 MW for 2009 and 2010, respectively.

However, "the new capacity is not real" accroding to Mr Tomás Díaz, Director of Communication at ASIF, one of Spain's solar PV industry association, as that cap will be covered by the facilities from 2008 that have not been connected on time for the RD 661/07, the current legislation.

Both ASIF and APPA, the country's Renewable Energy Producers Association, have suggested the Ministry to moderate the solar PV industry's current growth in the country and establish a new goal of 600 MW for 2009, including 480 MW for new facilities and 120 MW for old facilities that are not connected to the grid before September 28th, the deadline for being under the umbrella of the current feed-in tariff, one of the best in the world. ASIF expects that with such a low cap the ground-mounted market will be destroyed. As concerns rooftop facilities (type I), 10% of the total cap (20 MW) will be fore facilities with a capacity below 20 kW, whereas 90% of the cap (180 MW) will be for larger facilities, with a maximum power of 2 MW. The size limit for ground-mounted facilities (type II) will be 10 MW, according to the current draft. Last, but not least, the feed-in tariffs included in the government's proposal, which will still have a validity of 25 years, are the ones that everybody expects:  0.34 €/kWh for small rooftop facilities (up to 20 kWp) and 0.32 €/kWh for the bigger ones. As concerns ground-mounted facilities, popularly known in Spain as "huertos solares", will receive a feed-in tariff of 0.29 €/kWh.

For additional information: www.asif.org