Government bets on solar: authorizes seven times more than wind farms
CE Noticias Financieras
The Ministry for Ecological Transition has released the final result of the processing of renewable energy projects. Teresa Ribera's department has submitted 202 files of renewable energy projects to the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure, 100% of which, within the scope of its competences, had to obtain the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before January 25, in accordance with the deadlines and milestones established by Royal Decree-Law 23/2020. A total of 154 files have received positive EIS, 36 have obtained negative EIS and 12 have been archived. The power of the evaluated projects amounts to 35,879 MW, of which 27,943 MW have obtained a favorable EIS; they correspond to 132 photovoltaic projects (24,752 MW), another 20 wind projects (2,897 MW) and two hybrid projects (294 MW), which in practice means that in total the ministry has managed to 'save' around 30,000 million of investment. According to the Ministry, the vast majority of the favorable EISs of the projects contain mandatory conditions, without which the rest of the administrative authorizations of the process cannot be obtained. Three out of every four files with a positive EIS have undergone modifications before obtaining it, with reductions in the area of occupation or the volume of equipment to be installed. Likewise, each favorable EIS includes the appropriate corrective and compensatory measures to minimize the possible environmental impacts generated in the construction and operation phase of the projects, as well as the conditions of the Environmental Monitoring Plan to be developed. RDL 23/20 establishes time periods for electricity generation projects to comply with certain milestones in the processing from the moment they receive the rights of access and connection to the electricity grids, under penalty of losing such rights. The processing of projects with more than 50 MW or located in more than one autonomous community is the responsibility of the Ministry, while the other projects are the responsibility of the autonomous communities. RDL 23/20 establishes that the projects with access and connection rights received between December 31, 2017 and June 25, 2020 -the date of approval of said regulation- expired last January 25 and the Government has evaluated all the projects under its competence. As elEconomista.es advanced, the Ministry has until February 25 to publish the environmental impact statements that it has previously processed but it is made clear from the Executive that no additional extension has been approved as some media assured yesterday. REE will have to publish on February 25 the situation of the access and connection points.