Spain - Spanish wind energy sector in 2011 registered the lowest growth in its history

The wind farm sector in 2011 registered the lowest growth in its history in Spain. At present, there are 1903 MW recorded in the Register of Pre-allocation and commissioning outstanding, of which half have trouble being built.

According to leading wind turbines manufacturers, less than 10% of the production of wind turbines is carried out in Spain is for domestic orders.

Spanish Wind Energy Association considers it urgent to start working with the Government to design an adequate regulatory system to the economic situation, to ensure the future development of wind energy sector and does not jeopardize the 30,000 jobs it represents.

The wind power industry installed 1,050 MW in Spain in 2011, representing an annual increase of 5.1% of the accumulated power, which stood at 21,673 MW at 31 December. This is the weakest growth in the history of wind power in Spain in terms of percentage. These data mean that wind power is below the objective set by the previous government in 2011, of 22,119 MW.

Royal Decree-Law 1 / 2012, published on Saturday, that guarantees the economic side current installed capacity and pre-registered wind farm parks and on the other, suspend the incentives to facilities that are not registered in the Register of Pre-allocation. The absence of signals about the future involves a significant risk to the wind power industry and the more than 30,000 people it employs: the lack of orders for wind turbines has already made a major restructuring and is likely the relocation of manufacturers to other countries .

According to leading wind turbines manufacturers, currently less than 10% of production taking place in Spain is for domestic orders. In fact, the 1,050 MW installed in Spain in 2011, the wind turbines respond to requests made in previous years, as the long maturation period of wind farm projects; the average is seven years, requires placing orders at the factory between 1.5 and two years earlier.

Therefore, Spanish Wind Energy Association considered urgent to get to work immediately with the government to design an economic system, taking into account the plight of the Spanish economy, allowing the development of the sector.

In this sense, the new rules should take into account the high degree of maturity and competitiveness of the wind energy, their impact on the deficit rate was zero in 2011, representing 0.28% of Spanish GDP, which exports more 2,000 million euros annually and avoiding fossil fuel imports by nearly 2,000 million, thus helping to curb the current account deficit.

2012 is the final year of the Register of Pre-allocation, which are registered and pending commissioning a total of 1,903 MW. Of these, 970 MW have problems to be constructed before the entry deadline for reasons not attributable to the promoters, such as the delay of the network planning of transport and distribution lines, and administrative difficulties, or lack of economic viability. These problems pose megawatt power half of registered and installed this year.

In addition, Spanish Wind Energy Association considers that the Ministry maintains the quota of 600 MW wind farms in the Canary Islands under Royal Decree 1614/2010.

Castilla y León, head in 2011

According to data collected by AEE, which keeps track of all the companies in Spain and uses the criterion of record of the final service to perform the calculations, in 2011 Castile and Leon captured 44% of installed wind farm capacity in 2011 , with a total of 462 new MW, so that continues to lead the ranking. Valencia, with 183 MW, and Catalonia, with 153 MW, were the communities with more wind farms built. By contrast, a total of eight autonomous communities no new capacity installed in 2011, including some that enjoy greater wind resource, such as Galicia.

Only seven companies promoting wind farms have installed 50 MW or more in 2011: Eyra, EDPR, Enel Green Power Spain, Acciona Energy, Iberdrola, and E.ON. VAPAT

As manufacturers, Gamesa wind turbines were added the most power (MW 461.15), followed by Vestas (207.40 MW).

Although wind power in 2011 was lower than in 2010, the wind energy covered the 15.75% of annual electricity demand, according to Spain's Red Electrica (REE). The wind power prevented the emission of 22 million tons of CO2 in 2011.

The criterion used by AEE to calculate the installed power is the Act of Commissioning of the wind farms, which do not always coincide with the data published by the promoters. The total per promoter is linked to the power attributed according to their percentage ownership in wind farms.

For more information on this article or if you would like to know more about what www.windfair.net can offer, please do not hesitate to contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net

www.windfair.net is the largest international B2B Internet platform – ultimately designed for connecting wind energy enthusiasts and companies across the globe!