Plans for windfarms worth an estimated 375 million euros are expected to be abandoned after the new National Energy Plan 2015-2020 confirmed no new national grid infrastructure for Almería province.
There had been two major National Grid investments mooted for Almería, a new Vera – Granada high power line and a new substation in Tabernas to connect up renewable energy sources there.
Neither project has materialised in the new plan, meaning that any new energy producing plants simply can’t get their power out to the rest of Spain.
15 projected windfarms are now expected to be shelved at least until 2020, six of them in Tabernas alone. The industry claims the investment lost is at least 375 million euros, plus around a thousand jobs.
However, Spain cannot afford the vast subsidies it keeps paying renewable energy producers and so Rajoy’s government is determined to avoid the continued expansion of the sector, as shown by the recent law that makes domestic users of solar panels have to pay tax on all electricity they generate for their own use.