Spanish projects paralysed
Credit: Mike McGovern, Windpower Monthly | www.windpowermonthly.com 1 August 2012 ~~
Developers Eolia and Fersa have confirmed they have frozen nine wind projects totalling 257MW in Spain’s northern region of Catalonia, claiming they cannot meet the end-2012 deadline for commissioning.
The projects, not yet under construction, represent over half the 445MW the central government allocated to Catalonia in 2009 in its last round of new wind capacity quotas.
In a statement to Windpower Monthly, Fersa refuted reports that difficulties in sealing finance were to blame. Rather, a Fersa spokesman said slow processing simply made the end-2012 deadline impossible to meet. Eolia was unavailable for comment
The case underscores sector claims that the Spanish quota system, together with strict deadlines, is unfair as not all project developments face the same time scales.
With the Eolia and Fersa project drop-out, national wind association Asociación Empresarial Eólica (AEE) claimed that just under 1GW of the 2009 allocation will fail to meet the end-2012 deadline.
Projects on hold must now await approval of government energy reform, currently being drafted. New pay rates for wind power are widely expected to plummet.
