The solar development fever is not receding
A new regulation was implemented in September in Spain that tightens requirements for the connection of renewable developments to the transmission grid, in an effort to filter out speculative or “zombi” projects.
This regulation is supposed to cool down the development fever symptoms by reducing the total number of applications for connection and concentrate the efforts only on serious projects that can prove a legal access (via ownership or rental) to the land where the plant is projected.
But recent data published by Red Eléctrica de España (see picture above) only shows a slight cool down.
Wind and solar projects with connection access granted have indeed decreased from August to September by 8,8GW from 130GW to 121,2GW, which represents a 6,7% drop. But the figure is still massive: it still outweighs the total current installed capacity in Spain (all technologies included) of 105GW, and is far beyond the PNIEC figures of expected renewable capacity to be installed by 2030 (+40GW).
The decrease has been more sincere in projects under study, that have dropped from 60GW to 50GW. But again this implies an extra 50GW to be added to the 120GW log.
A high mortality rate is to be expected among these 170GW of developments…
