Galicia and Andalusia against the Department of Industry

In a press release, Andalusia's Innovation Department has informed that they have communicated their reject to the national Industry Department. The reason is that the energy plan PLEAN 2003-2006 was approved and backed by Andalusia's Parliament; it was also sent to Spain's central government, IDAE and REE and it did not receive any objection to the goal of having 4,000 MW in the region by 2010.

Andalusia's regional goverment (aka Junta) has added that all the projects developed in the region comply with the mandatory criteria –territorial, urban, environmental and financial feasibility- and also have grid-connection capacity both for transport and distribution. And the evacuation capacity in Andalusia is in line with the transport infrastructures depicted in the Industry Department's energy transport plan.

Likewise, Mr Francisco Garrido, Andalusia's Green Party Spokesman, has announced a set of parliamentary measures addressing the Industry Department's intentions, such as a request for further elaboration from the Industry Minister, Mr José Montilla, and the Energy Secretary General, Mr Antonio Fernández, so as a legislation proposal (not law) to increase Spain's wind energy target

Meanwhile, Galicia's President Mr Emilio Pérez Touriño has assured that "the regional goverment (aka Xunta) intends to achieve the biggest wind quota for Galicia" and is not going to accept the government's proposal to limit the region's capacity to 3,800 MW, as the current goal is to reach 6,500 MW by 2010

Mr Touriño added that "soon" an order will be published in Galicia's Official Journal authorizing 750 new megawatts of wind power, thus bringing Galicia's total installed capacity to 4,600 megawatts. However, Mr Touriño warned that wind power also "has a cost".

With these words, Galicia's President recalls the warning made last week in the Parliament by Mr Fernández Segura, stating that the Spanish regions aiming to increase their wind capacity above the allowed quotas "will not see feed-in tariffs" from the central government.

The reasons behind the Industry Department's cut of wind power capacity growth is that the electricity grid does not have capacity to evacuate all the wind power proposed.