Renewable Energy: the Government takes the first step towards the eagerly awaited “auction”

Following several announcements by the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Roadmap, on 31 March 2017 the Cabinet finally approved Royal Decree 359/2017, of 31 March, making a call for applications for the specific remuneration (investment/operation subsidy payment) scheme open to new facilities that produce electricity from renewable energy sources within the Spanish mainland electricity system, published in the Official Journal of Spain on 1 April 2017.This regulation is the first milestone in the (complex) process designed by the Ministry for, in the words of the royal decree itself, «new renewable power auctions with the different technologies participating on an equal footing in order for the most cost-efficient projects to be included in the electricity system». This regulation must be supplemented with a Ministerial Order setting the remuneration parameters for standard facilities and with one or more decisions by the State Secretariat of Energy setting the date of the auction (or auctions, if several are organised) as well as the applicable rules and procedure…