CSP World

The Spanish Concentrated Solar Power industry association, Protermosolar, is asking to European Commission (EC) to start proceedings against Spain's government for violating the European legal framework after regulatory changes enacted by government.

According to local media El Confidencial, Protermosolar's Secretary General, Luis Crespo said "We believe (...) the principle of legitimate expectations has been violated. We are going to lobby within the EC members to help decide if an infringement proceeding is appropriate". During a recently held board meeting, the association had reportedly agreed to hire some lobby specialized firm.

According to a press release from the association, revenues for CSP plants in Spain have dropped 37% due to measures taken by Ministry of Energy in the last months.

Spain's Minister of Energy, Jose Manuel Soria, announced new measures to be issued this month, although some local medias claim that the minister has asked to Spain's President, Mariano Rajoy, for more time to reach an agreement with the stakeholers.

Additionally, some of the investment funds with shares in CSP and other renewable energy assets have announced imminent legal actions against Spain's government, based on the Energy Charter Treaty, if the government is unwilling to enter into negotiations with renewable energy sector stakeholders. According to newspaper El Pais, these investors claim that changes in regulatory framework "adversely affect the renewable energy sector, particularly to CSP and wind".

Since January 2012, after the elections that led to a change of government, the regulatory framework has been modified a number of times to reduce the revenues for the whole renewable energy sector. In previous articles by CSP World, we have reported how companies involved in the Spanish CSP sector have been hit by the measures enacted since then. Abengoa and Acciona, two of the main CSP stakeholders in Spain recently announced to sue Spanish government,each one individually, while some companies have filed a joint lawsuit.

Regulatory framework for CSP

The regulatory framework for renewable energy generation in Spain was mainly established under the Royal Decree 661/2007.

• Feed-in-Tariff with fixed tariff option: 26.9375 c€ per kWh
• Feed-in-Tariff with pool+premium option: 25.4 c€ per kWh + pool price* (with a cap: 34.3976 c€ and a floor: 25.4038)
• Period: 25 years
• FiT is updated annually according to Consumer Prices Index
• CSP plants allowed to burn natural gas (15% max)

New regulatory framework effective since January 2013

• FiT with pool+premium option has been withdrawn
• FiT is updated with a different index (this year has been negative, FiT for 2013 is 29.8873 c€ per kWh)
• Generation attributable to burning natural gas is not included in the FiT
• 7% tax over all revenues