The Government has published this Wednesday the draft of the new National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) that it will send to Brussels before the end of the month with a notable increase in the greenhouse gas reduction targets. Specifically, it increases the reduction of greenhouse gases to 32% by 2030 -compared to 1990- compared to the previous 23%. It also includes an investment in energy transformation of 294,000 million euros, to achieve a target of 44% energy efficiency.
As in the previous plan, electric power continues to be the main driver of the transformation, with a renewable energy target of 48% in final consumption -compared to the previous 42%- and a generation target of up to 81% -from the 74% above-, taking into account the installed renewable power in relation to the total electrical power.
The plan is aligned with the requirements of the European Union to reduce energy dependence on external fuels and includes a set of objectives that, if fully met, would reduce energy dependence by up to 51%.
To achieve this, the objectives proposed by the Government include reaching 2030 with a total of 166 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power installed out of a total of 213 GW installed counting nuclear, combined cycles (gas). The greatest boost is received by storage with an increase in objectives of more than 110% since the challenge of reaching 2030 with 18,543 MW installed is established, compared to the 8,828 that the previous Pniec contemplated.
They are followed by energy from thermoelectric solar and biomass that almost double objectives. In the case of solar thermal power, the 2.3 GW to 4.8 GW achievable in 2030 will go from. In the case of biogas, the 240 GW in the previous Pniec will go from the 440 established for this one.
Wind and photovoltaic energies, despite being the most widespread, will also have a strong boost. The objective of wind power is to reach 2030 with 62,044 MW installed, 47.2% more than the previous objective. In the case of photovoltaics, the increase is 34.6% to 76,387 MW. Biomass-based generation projects are also increased to a target of 1,409 MW, 39.6% growth compared to that established in the previous Pniec.
In line with the trends of the last year, the plan updates the goals to promote the installation of electrolyzers to generate 11GW of renewable hydrogen. For its part, self-consumption that is boosted to 19GW.
On the other hand, the target for gross nuclear power for the year 2030 falls by more than half, 57%, from 7,339 MW to 3,181 MW. In this sense, sources from the Ministry of Transition acknowledge that if another government team arrives, this objective could be modified, but never above the 7,339 MW contained in the old Pniec. It is a criterion that is applicable to all the objectives of the plan, although in nuclear energy it is the one in which there is the most discrepancy between the candidates for La Moncloa.
Savings is also a strong point in the new plan. This increases the objectives of rehabilitating 1.38 million homes, compared to the 1.2 million established previously. To which is added an increase in the targets for electric vehicles that goes from the current 5 million to 5.5 million.
The draft contemplates a calculation of socioeconomic impact based on the mobilization of an investment of 294,000 million of which 85% will be private and 15% will be public, the vast majority coming from European funds.
40% of this investment will be allocated to renewable energies, 29% to savings and efficiency, 18% to energy networks and 12% to the electrification of the economy.
All this is estimated to translate into additional GDP growth of 2.5% with job creation of between 430,000 and 522,00 new jobs between 2025 and 2030.
