The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition published on its website on May 31 the document that establishes the sustainable energy model to be followed until 2050 in the Valencian Community. It is a roadmap drawn up by the Fundación Renovables, based in Madrid, which is dated November 2022 and which is based on the energy diagnosis of the Valencian Community, in which it notes that there is still “great potential” for the deployment of renewable in autonomy. Sources in this medium assure that the report was expected for the month of January, but its content has not been released until now, accessible through the Valencian Government website.
The document, among others, incorporates the analysis of the evolution of the renewable power available in the Valencian Community and establishes that, in the future, both centralized photovoltaic solar technology plants and on-shore wind technology will be key, which are those located on land. For the first, the text establishes that with a goal of 6,773MW of power with photovoltaic solar technology in 2023, 67% will be centralized (4,522MW) and 33% (2,251MW) for self-consumption.
The data clashes with the thesis of Compromís, a formation that was managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and ultimately responsible for the report in this last legislature. His proposal for ‘Comencem per la teulada’ had an internal response, and ended up unleashing a crisis with the departure of Pedro Fresco, former director general of Ecological Transition, who defended that “it cannot be said that putting solar panels on the roofs of buildings is enough to make the energy transition or that the goal of 6,000 MW of electricity set for 2030 can be achieved”.
Launched at the end of November, the proposal of the Valencian formation presented by the then trustee Papi Robles consisted of an electricity generation plan through the placement of solar panels on the roofs that proposed reaching 2030 with an electricity production of 6,000 MW from solar energy.
“Our rooftops are the best space to do it without affecting any ecosystem,” read the proposal. The training was based on an IVACE study, developed by the Technological Institute of Energy, which appreciates that by installing photovoltaic panels on 40% of existing roofs and covers “an installed power of 14,000 megawatts could be achieved” , more than half of the 6,000 MW that the Valencian Government had set as a goal for 2030.
However, the roadmap for renewables of the Ministry of Agriculture published now clashes with this idea, since it entrusts almost everything to the centralized production of photovoltaics and energy generated from the wind on the mainland. Only in the prospection for 2040 does it envision 8% of energy generated with wind power on the high seas and it is not until 2025 that self-consumption in solar energy grows to 45%.
This, despite the boom in these installations, which in recent years has grown exponentially, “practically doubling the rate of installation in one year,” says the report. Currently, photovoltaic technology is the leader in self-consumption facilities. “Starting in 2022, photovoltaic self-consumption in the Valencian Community took off, reaching 365 MW installed in the third quarter of 2022,” the report states.
The document concludes that the Valencian Community has the technical and territorial potential to implement renewable technologies capable of achieving energy self-sufficiency and completely reducing emissions from the energy sector.
