Spanish renewables industry warns of threats to investment

MADRID (Reuters) – The mismatch between increasing supply of renewable power and electricity demand that is struggling to grow, coupled with depressed wholesale power prices, threatens future investments in the sector, renewables lobby APPA warned on Friday.

KEY QUOTES

We continue to add renewables capacity without a proportional increase in power demand,” APPA President Santiago Gomez told reporters.

As for pricing, he said, “By the end of 2024, we expect about 10% of hours at zero or even negative power prices,” adding that April saw the lowest price in the whole historical series.

These figures are clearly insufficient to make renewable investments profitable, which could jeopardise the financing of future projects,” he said.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

The warning comes at a time when Spain needs to speed up the rollout of renewables projects to meet ambitious targets in its climate and energy plan. Failing to boost storage and increase the weight of electricity in its energy mix, increases the risk that it will fall short of its targets, APPA warned.

CONTEXT

Europe in general has seen a record number of hours at zero or even negative power prices this year, on the back of the massive expansion of solar power and strong hydro power production.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)