For the first time, the Government will take into account the concerns and reservations of local communities or people who are in some way threatened by a renewable energy project before authorizing an auction to award certain companies to exploit a green resource.. The novelty has been reflected in the draft of the royal decree with which the Ministry for the Ecological Transition will regulate offshore wind, to grant generation capacity and define the remuneration system for a technology that does not yet exist in Spain but was designed on last year within the Marine Space Management Plans (POEM), which opened the door to installing wind turbines in a space of up to 5,000 square kilometers along the Spanish coast. This Monday the conditions under which the promoters will be eligible for these parks were known and among them is the novelty that communities and affected people will be consulted first.

The draft of the royal decree establishes a regime of “competitive competition” between promoters who want to access rights to exploit maritime areas where offshore wind generation is permitted, through an auction to be designed by the Ministry and for which “a public-private dialogue in which the sectors affected by marine renewable installations participate”. The objective will be to “complete the definition of the characteristics and requirements that the facilities must meet, as well as the details of the competitive competition procedure, in a way that favors their social acceptance and their integration with other uses of the sea, increasing its positive externalities. and also promoting the industrial development of the affected areas”.

Thus, the corresponding Ministerial Order that regulates offshore wind auctions will determine ordinary aspects such as what power will be awarded, where the wind turbines will be located or the technologies that will be used and may also contemplate the “comments or improvement proposals” that the “interested parties belonging to to the sectors affected by marine renewable installations” can send so that “aspects, parameters or criteria” that “can be redefined or modified.”

The royal decree prepared by the Ministry and which was put out for public consultation this Monday indicates that this participation process will occur “in addition” to the public consultation procedures and allegations already provided for by law and may form part of the design of the auctions of offshore wind. They may make comments about the place where the wind turbines are installed, the power quota, aspects that must be taken into account in design, construction, operation and dismantling or their compatibility with other uses of the sea in the delimited areas, such as fishing.. Also on what weighting criteria the auctions should include in relation to the “socioeconomic impact of the project.”

The Secretary of State may fully or partially incorporate the proposals of the local communities and it will be assessed that they are “concrete, feasible and adequately justified” and then the promoters will be able to make comments on these assessments and requests.

In sea from the origin

This is the first time that the deployment of renewables in Spain takes into account from the very beginning of the procedure what local communities and others affected have to say and the Ecological Transition has started with offshore wind, a technology that will now start from the beginning .

“On land we find everything articulated, but at sea we start from the beginning,” said the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, this Monday during the presentation by the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS) of a few days of dialogue between promoters, developers and communities that, in one way or another, are part of a development of photovoltaic and wind energy that Ribera has recognized as “taking advantage of the potential” that the sun and wind offer in Spain to generate electricity in a clean way but that also causes rejection. In the case of offshore wind, protests by Galician and Asturian fishermen after the approval of the POEM that located the area where they fish most of the areas where floating wind turbines will be allowed.

“We also have to reflect on what it represents in the territory. Doubts arise about how, where and in what way and how local communities can benefit,” said Ribera, who with regard to the implementation of renewables on dry land in January announced that he would convene promoters, communities and administrations to study how an “orderly deployment” can be done. The initiative, which Ministry sources said would be imminent, seems to be now about to get underway.. Ribera stated this Monday that “in the coming weeks” dialogue groups will begin to be organized that will work over nine sessions. “There are social changes in which information is required and it must be done as best as possible,” said Ribera, who hoped that a debate similar to the one organized by REDS could take place, but “in a more institutionalized way and I hope not more bored”.

Points for impact on the landscape or employment

In the case of offshore wind, the Ministry will set “objective” requirements that promoters must meet to be successful bidders in an auction and must also pass a score based on the degree of compliance with other “non-economic” criteria that will weigh 30%. of the final score and which, again, are closely related to the effects on the closest communities.

According to the draft, they may have to do with what space the wind turbines will occupy, their number or distance from the coast or be related to the environmental impact and the landscape, such as whether they include measures to minimize it or measures to minimize the environmental impact. and landscape.

The projects will also be scored based on their “socioeconomic impact”, the industrial and economic development that may derive from it, their impact on employment and the local, regional, national and community industrial value chain or if they contemplate the participation of SMEs.. They will also be required to dismantle the wind turbines at the end of their useful life.

Also new, the Ministry opens the door for offshore wind auctions to not have a reserve price – the limit that is willing to pay for each MWh – that is not secret as until now, and as the sector demanded.. “In those cases in which the reserve price is not confidential, the order that regulates the competitive bidding procedure may establish mechanisms to guarantee effective competition in said procedure,” says the draft submitted to public auction from this Monday until on March 25, which establishes that there may also be a maximum or “risk” price – this one, confidential -.

The successful bidders of the auctions will have a guarantee of access to the electrical grid to evacuate the electricity generated with offshore wind, but not access and connection to the grid, so they will have to request the concession according to the current procedure.