New socio-economic and environmental criteria for the deployment of renewable energy

The Council of Ministers approved last Friday the Royal Decree-Law 12/2021, new measures to increase the economic and social benefits of the deployment of renewable plants. It is added to the contests to grant access to the network (which we talked about in a previous post) the possibility of incorporating criteria that promote the generation of employment, the participation of local actors or the reinvestment of profits in the area.

New criteria in access contests

Until now, the criteria applicable to the contests were temporary and technical and were regulated by the first 3 sections of article 19 of the Royal Decree 1183/2020:

1) Temporary criteria, which serve to prioritize those projects that begin before the injection of energy to the grid and that may contribute to the regularity, or to the quality of the supply, or to the sustainability and economic efficiency of the electrical system.

2) Criteria associated with generation technology, which serve to prioritize projects that can maximize the volume of energy from renewable sources that can be integrated into the grid under safe conditions for the system and that can contribute to the regularity, or to the quality of the supply, or to the sustainability and economic efficiency of the electrical system.

3) Tenders may also incorporate technical criteria that serve to prioritize the granting of access to projects that incorporate electricity generation technologies in the R+D+i phase, in order to demonstrate that the generated renewable energy can be integrated into the grid under safe conditions for the system, its contribution to the regularity and quality of the supply is analyzed, and whether such technologies can contribute to the sustainability and economic efficiency of the electrical system. Under no circumstances can the power reserved in a tender for this type of R+D+i installations exceed 30 MW per network node.

As of the publication of RD 12/2021, a 4th section has been introduced.) specifying the socio-economic and environmental criteria that can be incorporated into the competitions:

a) Socio-economic impact on the area and its inhabitants, which will be assessed using an objective and quantifiable methodology in accordance with what is stated in the following sections:

i. Direct jobs generated in local and adjacent municipalities, both during the construction and start-up process of generation and/or storage facilities, and during their operation.

ii. Indirect jobs generated in local and adjacent municipalities, both during the construction and start-up process of the facilities and during their operation. It should be distinguished by related sectors or activities, compatible or likely to benefit from the development of renewables as a result of the project.

iii. Economic impact on the local, regional, national and community industrial value chain, measured in terms of investment of the services and goods purchased for the development of the generation and/or storage project on the total investment of the project.

iv. Percentage of participation, measured in terms of investment in the generation and/or storage project of local investors, and of companies and administrations in the area where the facility will be located.

v. Presentation of mechanisms for the reinvestment of income earned from generation and/or storage plants in the area where the facility will be located.

b) A score will be established based on the foreseeable degree of environmental impact. For these purposes, the classification in different areas on the map of” will be taken into accountEnvironmental zoning for the deployment of renewable energies: wind and photovoltaic” (updated on 19/5/2022) prepared by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.”

c) In addition, tenders may establish criteria that contribute to economic activation in affected demographically challenging areas where the planned installation is located. (updated on 29/3/2022 by the Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, adopting urgent measures within the framework of the National Plan to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine.)

Knots in competition

In the following table you will see the nodes where it is agreed to hold access capacity contests according to resolution grouped by autonomous community:

If you also want to know the capacity available in each of these nodes for the contests, you can consult them in this other document: Transportation Network Access Capacity. (updated on 1/3/2022)

Ratings

At the present time when there is a social debate on how the energy transition should take place, the first reactions such as that of SEO-BirdLife who point out that this measure “represents an advance to guarantee responsible, socially and environmentally responsible renewable development and sends a clear message to the sector: it is necessary to move away from areas of high ecological value and incorporate into projects measures that benefit socially, and in the long term, the local communities where they intend to locate their energy facilities.”

At Ideas MedioAmbiental, we also value this measure positively and are incorporating these criteria into numerous Socio-Economic Impact Studies (EIS) prepared based on our continuous improvement process, as can be seen in the Strategic Plans or the Analyses of the social, environmental and economic contexts that we are currently developing. Are you looking to differentiate yourself in the sector? We accompany you.