Castilla y León is the first community in Spain both in installed capacity in renewable energies, wind and solar, and in the amount of clean energy discharged into the Spanish electricity grid. The Community’s energy mix has ensured that in 2021 more than 89% of production will be renewable, compared to 42.4% for the whole country, which places Castilla y León as the second largest producer of clean energy , just behind Norway.
As reported by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Junta de Castilla y León in a statement sent to Ical, this situation allows Spain to meet its European commitments in the field of renewable energies, largely thanks to Castilla y Leon. And it is that in the European continent, only Norway has obtained a higher percentage of renewable electricity production than Castilla y León, reaching 96.7% of all its production.
According to the latest data for 2021, the Community has almost a fifth, 19.4%, of all the renewable energy installed in Spain, being the leader in hydropower with 25.7% and also the wind energy, with 22.8% of all Spanish energy to take advantage of the wind.
The Junta de Castilla y León foresees an increase in the installation of renewable energy capacity of around 3,000 megawatts for the next four years. The commitment to install clean energy for this legislature sets a growth of photovoltaic energy of 2,000 megawatts and up to 3,000 MW and 1,000 MW of additional wind installation and reaching 7,300 MW of installed capacity . The wind energy installation target, in line with the European and Spanish renewable energy strategies, is 10,000 new MW in 2030.
Boost to self-consumption
On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy and Finance promotes the development of photovoltaic self-consumption. By the end of 2021, 58 MW of photovoltaic power for self-consumption had been installed in the Community. This figure, low compared to other renewable energies, has led to a significant growth in the installation of solar panels for the production of electricity in private homes compared to 2020.
Until this month of July, more than 10,300 applications for self-consumption and energy storage installations have been submitted, which would mean the start-up of more than 345 new kW of power installed on the roofs of the Community and a storage capacity of almost 25kWh Until that date, the subsidy requested reaches 89.6 million euros with induced investments which will reach more than 270.5 million euros.
This increase in the installation of electrical energy underlines the importance of a sector with enormous potential in the Community. The Ministry of Economy and Finance promotes the Self-consumption Table to analyze the tax aspects and discounts associated with investments in these facilities, as well as the technical training of installers. Likewise, work has been carried out with communication groups, electrical regulations and municipalities, analyzing problems related to administrative processing from the point of view of environmental, urban, electrical and industrial safety.
New energy strategy 2021-2030
The Ministry of Economy and Finance is also working on the new energy efficiency strategy for Castilla y León until 2030. Work is well advanced by the Regional Energy Entity (EREN), in full compliance with the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030. (PNIEC). The processing of this new strategy for Castilla y León is currently underway.
The broad guidelines of this new community strategy are in line with the criteria of the PNIEC, and by extension with the guidelines of the European Union for 2030 in terms of the development of renewable energies and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the PNIEC establishes that the objectives to be achieved in a decade are: to achieve a 23% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990; achieve 42% renewable energy in the end use of energy, a figure that doubles the 20% of the year 2020; achieve a 39.5% improvement in energy efficiency over the next decade; and having a 74% renewable energy presence in the electricity sector, in line with a trajectory towards a 100% renewable electricity sector in 2050.