Spain is second UE Member State the total cumulative installed capacity with 3.5 GW. Most of this capacity was installed in 2008 when the country was the biggest market with close to 2.7 GW in 2008.
This was more than twice the expected capacity and was due to an exceptional race to install systems before the Spanish Government
introduced a cap of 500 MW on the yearly installations in the autumn of 2008. The reason for the drastic market expansion between 2006 and 2008 was the Spanish Government's approval of the Plan de EnergÃas Renovables en España (PER) for 2005 – 2010 in August 2005.
The objectives were to cover 12.1 % of Spain's overall energy needs and 30.3 % of total electricity consumption with renewable energy sources by 2010. The generous feed-in tariffs set by the Royal Decree 436/2004, dated 12 March 2004, started the development of the Spanish PV market.
In 2007 the Royal Decree 661/2007 was passed with an increased cap of 1,200 MW for PV installations and triggered a run on permits to install multi-megawatt free-field solar photovoltaic electricity systems. This development led to the revision of the Solar PV Legislation in 2008, and the new Royal Decree 1758/2008 which was approved on 26 September 2008. The new decree sets considerably lower
feed-in tariffs for new systems and limits the annual market to 500 MW with the provision that two-thirds are rooftop mounted and no longer free field systems. In 2009 this change in legislation resulted in a new installed capacity of about 100 MW.
Source :
Association (104)
