L R AS Published on Monday 14 February 2022 - n° 393 - Categories:European countries
Spain, centre of European RE production?
Spain could become the leading producer of renewable energy in Europe. It has the opportunity to become the European leader. The creation of a National Energy Transition Fund
like the one created by Norway for its oil industry, could help the country attract huge investments in clean energy. This is the opinion of financier Áurea Capital Partners.
This role stems from its enviable position in terms of solar radiation. The penetration of renewable energies in the mix would save the European economy 254 billion euros over the period from 2019 to 2050, or 2.1% of the GDP of the Eurozone in 2020. "Every euro invested in solar power generation in Spain yields a 35% higher profit margin than in any other EU country," the study says.
Spain can cover its own demand and a large part of Europe's renewable energy supply with solar energy and storage in an environmentally sustainable - and socially inclusive - way. "It can aspire to become the main supplier of renewable energy in Europe, replacing gas and oil imports."
"The Fund would serve as a vehicle for pension investment. It would create independent power producers (IPPs). It would mobilise capital from pensions and institutional investors, with a low cost of capital. The fund could be financed by savings from [not importing or importing less] fossil fuels and [from] the pension budget, by changing the pension law, following the French or Norwegian model."
Respecting the diversification criteria (no more than 10% in one sector of activity), with 30 billion euros, it would cover about 3.6% of the 830 billion euros of investment in renewable energy needed in Spain by 2050.
The challenge: the Norwegian example is based on offshore production.
Spain should organise itself on land. A territorial organisation should be proposed that favours the distributed nature of renewable energies, and in particular solar photovoltaics, in the Spanish grid with sufficiently interconnected nodes that should overlap with European demands.
It is also essential to speed up the interconnection with France and the rest of Europe in order to be able to sell the renewable energy produced by Spain.
PV Magazine of 10 February 2022
Editor's note Three countries (Spain, Italy and Greece) have the potential to play this role of European renewable energy supplier. Whether it is with a financing body or a political will to ensure this role, each of these countries can exercise this mission. It will be the basis for European economic competitiveness. However, it is still too early to claim to play this role since there would have to be European competition on the cost of renewable energy before such a champion with such a role could emerge.
