Catalan govt removes excessive red tape for wind, solar

The Catalan government on Tuesday adopted a new decree-law to address climate emergency and promote renewable energy on its territory, eliminating previous barriers that halted the growth of wind and solar power.

The new regulation repeals the 2009 decree, which specified that a call for tender must be launched for wind farms, while solar parks were limited to a certain amount of hectares depending on whether they border industrial or agricultural land.

Presenting the text of the decree-law on Tuesday, Catalan minister of enterprise and knowledge Angels Chacon said that the tender model and land restrictions had been eliminated, and promised a faster administrative procedure from now on.

The regulation also introduces a simplified process for the installation of renewables in cities. The bureaucracy for rooftop solar arrays aimed at self-supply will be handled by a town hall, with no building permit required. This and other changes related to solar installations were well received by the Catalan branch of the national solar association UNEF.

The Catalan parliament has to confirm the regulation in the next 30 days.

According to the government, the new decree-law should help the Spanish region reach its climate and energy transition targets. Citing estimates by the Catalan energy institute ICAEN, the government said Catalonia needs to reach 4 GW of wind and 6 GW of solar power installed by 2030 to achieve its stated objectives. Catalonia currently has 1.3 GW of wind and just 276 MW of PV in service.

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