Industrial self-consumption of solar energy grew the most in 2023 in Spain, with a new installed capacity of 1,020 MW (-13% compared to 2022), followed by the residential sector with 372 MW (-54% compared to 2022), the commercial sector with 291 MW (-42% compared to 2022) and finally the isolated sector with 23 MW ( – 8% compared to 2022). This data represents a Decline in growth rate of 32% respect for 2022.
He own consumption of solar energy recorded the first contraction of growth in Spain in 2023, after multiplying the annual installed capacity by 26 over the last four years, with the installation of 1,943 new megawatts (MW) over the course of last year, amounting to a reduction of 27% compared to the record figure of 2022according to data from the annual photovoltaic self-consumption report of the APPA Renewables sector employers’ association.
Despite this slowdown in growth in its historical series, with this almost 2,000 new MW from last year -1,416 industrial MW and 527 residential MW-, self-consumption At the end of last year, it broke the barrier of seven installed gigawatts (GW). in the country.
This data therefore shows a significant decrease compared to the 2022 record in which the own consumption of solar energy grew by almost 2,650 MW – 1,625 industrial MW and 1,024 residential MW – almost double last year.
A decrease in the growth rate of solar self-consumption by 32% compared to 2022
At a press conference, the general manager of APPA Renovables, José María González Moya, linked this “cyclical” decline until the gradual end of aid to the facilities of the European recovery funds to the decline in electricity prices compared to the peaks in 2022.
In this sense, the president of APPA Autoconsumo, Jon Macías, considered that, apart from this change in trend in 2023, the data is “very good” as it represents a growth of 69% of the own consumption of solar energy in two years, which will ‘consolidate’ the sector and the target to reach the target of 19 gigawatts (GW) installed by 2030 set by the The government’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), recently updated. Achieving this would require a rate of 1.6 GW per year and “we are above that path,” says González Moya.
This growth rate in recent years makes it possible own consumption of solar energy now overcome, after the ‘boom’ of recent years following the end of the so-called ‘solar tax’ in 2018, surpassing nuclear energy in installed capacityalthough logically this is not the case when it comes to the contribution to production.
Furthermore, looking to 2024, APPA considers it “feasible” that the sector can move in the entry volumes of new energy in own consumption of solar energy last year, because installations are becoming cheaper.
“We believe that we can reach that 1.9 GW in 2023,” said González Moya. Similarly, in Spain last year, self-consumption generated a total of 7,262 gigawatt hours (GWh), already equivalent to 3% of electricity demand.
The self-consumption of solar energy in homes decreases by 54%
The biggest drop own consumption of solar energy has occurred in the domestic sector, a 54% compared to 2022 dataaccording to another source, that of the data recorded by the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), the largest solar energy business association in Spain.
UNEF indicates that 372 MW were installed in the residential sector, while in the industrial sector the decrease was smaller (1,020 MW, 13% less than the previous year). In total, the association estimates a decline in the growth rate of 32% compared to 2022, but an increase of 42% compared to 2021.
Despite this decline, “Spain is making good progress towards achieving its objectives highlighted in the new draft of the PNIEC, revised upwards in 2023,” they point out from UNEF in a recent press release.
The general manager of the solar energy business association, José Donoso, attributes the decline to «the loss of citizens’ perception of high energy pricesas well as the reduction in household purchasing power due to the increase in inflation, together with the exhaustion of the intended aid within the recovery funds, motivate these data.
Donoso also recalled that record years were coming own consumption of solar energy as a result of European aid and the price escalation as a result of the war in Ukraine. Likewise, he has called for a definitive end to “the barriers that hinder collective self-consumption in Spain.”
They lament the difficulty in bringing surplus solar energy production to the market
APPIA agrees in pointing out the bureaucratic problems and specifically deplores the difficulty that large facilities have in disposing of and marketing their surpluses, leading to the “absurd” situation requiring generation to be blocked with anti-discharge systems due to “regulatory and technical limitations”.
This means that 18% of possible generation is wasted, approximately 1,642 GWh, which would have represented a value of almost €131 million last year alone. This is how companies stack up 2016 losses of 405 million euros for that energy that cannot be deposited in the electrical system.
Moreover, if all own consumption of solar energy To meet demand this would have amounted to 3.7% of national electricity consumption, creating a loss of 0.7% that could not be deposited into the networks.
On the other hand, the sector has appreciated the “great potential” of the sector own consumption of solar energyas an average installation in Spain of 4.7 kW for a private consumer is an iAverage investment of 7,085 euros, with savings in 2023 that would have represented 14% of the investmentwhich would imply a recovery of the investment in approx seven years.
Donoso has also acknowledged that self-consumption facilities remain profitable for businesses and families, but has called for “new forms of economic stimulus that are more efficient,” such as tax cuts, following the example of countries such as Germany and the United States. Kingdom, which already applies a 0% VAT on these projects, “the delays in the administrative management of the projects and the homogenization of the 2,000 meters between generation and consumption in all facilities of own consumption of solar energy«.