In recent years and around the world, solar panels that enable the use of solar energy have become a common element in the urban and rural landscape. This is the result to the rise of self-consumption of photovoltaic energywhich has been shown to produce excellent results.
This The modality of self-consumption contributes to the fight against climate change and its deployment has been achieved through technological advances, assistance at the local and state levels, the softening of administrative procedures, and the reduction of the prices of the components of the facilities.
Self-consumption of photovoltaic energy
According to data estimated by the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), the association of the photovoltaic sector in Spain, 1,182 MW of self-consumption photovoltaics will be installed in 2024, continuing the growth of these solutions, which already have 8,137 MW in accumulate in our economy. country. UNEF estimates that 51,306 new homes installed solar photovoltaics themselves last year.
However, this data is They also show a decrease of 31% compared to the previous yearR. According to the data collected by the Majority Sector Association, in 2024, industrial self-consumption was the area with the highest new installed capacity, with 674 MW, of which 578 MW corresponds to industrial projects of more than 100 kW and 96 MW to industrial projects. of more than 100 KW less than 100 KW, although the industrial complex will see a 34% reduction in installed capacity compared to 2023.
UNEF attributes this decline in the industrial segment to the long maturation period of these projects compared to other smaller projects, such as residential, which is why the decline we saw in residential construction last year are now even more noticeable in the industrial sector. As for the rest of the sectors, 207 MW of self-consumption is recorded in the commercial sector and 275 MW in the residential sector.
UNEF blames this slowdown on the economy implementation of self-consumption solutions to eliminate the two fundamental engines that exceptionally contributed to the increase in previous years, such as the very high energy prices and the subsidies included in the Next Generation program.
“Self-consumption remains a highly profitable option for industry, businesses and homesas electricity prices are still high compared to the pre-crisis period. However, the perception among consumers that this is the case has disappeared, which together with the end of the subsidy program; “It has reduced the urgency that consumers have shown in recent years to look for alternatives that save energy,” said José Donoso, UNEF general manager.
Implement new measures from the PNIEC
“For this reason, it is necessary to implement new measures to reach the 19 GW of self-consumption by 2030, as set out in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC),” Donoso added. A goal that would require the installation of an average of 1.8 GW of self-consumption per year.
To alleviate this situation of setback in the pace of installation of own photovoltaic consumption, the sector considers it essential to raise awareness and information to all citizens about alternatives to reduce energy costswhose own consumption stands out.
Moreover, it suggests several measures have been transferred to national and regional institutionssuch as the exemption from the access and connection permit for any installation that, despite a greater installed capacity, does not inject more than 15 kW into the network, for low-voltage installations, or up to 100 kW for medium and high-voltage installations.
They ask too expand the possibility of simplified processing of 100 kW of the current installed power to the 450 kW of access capacity, which would allow the latter to benefit from the simplified compensation mechanism, the possibility of modifying the access contract directly by the distributors based on the information sent by the autonomous communities or to revise the excess compensation policies to make it more attractive. They also ask to include self-consumption together with heat pumps or storage as standardized actions to obtain energy savings certificates (CAEs).
UNEF believes that this is necessary for the autonomous communities that do not yet grant an exemption installations for self-consumption of less than 500 kW to apply for a prior administrative and construction permit (Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands, Galicia, Cantabria, Canary Islands and La Rioja), execute this exemption as soon as possible.
In the same way they demand the acceleration of the processing of current subsidies of the Next Generation program of the Autonomous Communities. The sector points out that, if the objectives of the PNIEC are to be achieved, it would be necessary to replace the subsidies of this program with other economic measures, such as tax cuts and an increase in the variable part of the electricity tariff.
In this sense, UNEF advocates that the toll burden of the bill increases in the variable term and is reduced in the fixed term. to encourage energy savingsin line with what is happening in other European countries, such as France or Denmark. The industry is also demanding that distributors adhere to deadlines for activating self-consumption through a change in the reward system.
On the other hand, UNEF sees an important opportunity updating the regulatory framework for self-consumptionwhose consideration by the Government has already started with a preliminary public consultation at the end of 2024, in which the association has submitted several proposals of different nature.
Energy communities and collective self-consumption
So far there has been self-consumption mainly developed in industries, companies and single-family homes. But UNEF emphasizes that there is still great opportunity to advance the energy transition by using the roofs of buildings, where more than two-thirds of the population lives.
To this end, UNEF proposes a series of measures such as lifting the obligation to install a net generation meter in certain cases where it may be redundant if the intention is to share surpluses and not generation, as well as develop the figure of the collective self-consumption manager to speed up the procedures for this type of self-consumption.
The sector also calls for measures so that the Energy Communities, a subject already defined by the Law of the Electricity Sector, can operate in it. In concrete terms, they demand the development of a specific regulatory framework for this figure that guarantees transparency and participation of non-traditional actors in the electrical system.
The key to self-consumption is storage
The industry believes that the development of solar photovoltaics, including the use of own energy, necessarily goes hand in hand with the implementation of storage solutions. In this sense, and to encourage its development, UNEF proposes to take this into account when updating the regulation of self-consumption. The integration of storage will not only allow better use of self-generated energy, but will also help to relieve electrical networks during the hours when they are most saturated.
For this reason, the sector is making a proposal to the government keep a dialogue open for the request as soon as possible of these types of measures and holding a meeting to address them, as well as institutional communication initiatives that expose and promote self-consumption, storage and energy communities. UNEF will continue to work with all government departments and regulators to promote the streamlining and commissioning of self-consumption facilities.