Wind Energy Lobby Says Spain Needs More Wind Power, Faster

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain needs to speed up the rollout of new wind energy projects if it is to achieve its 2030 target of doubling existing capacity, Rocio Sicre, president of wind energy lobby AEE, said on Thursday.

The group is calling on policymakers to streamline the permissioning process, support Europe's supply chains, and boost electrification. Electricity demand in Spain has fallen in 2022 and 2023.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Madrid has set an end-of-decade goal to reach 62 gigawatts of installed wind capacity, double the roughly 31 GW it has now.

That represents an "enormous challenge", considering that Spain has added around 1 GW so far this year and just 607 megawatts last year, Sicre said.

KEY QUOTES

"We need more wind and we need it faster," Sicre said.

While the slow pace at which new capacity is added is due to several factors, "the most important is the pace of permitting that we have experienced mainly in the years 2020-2022, which has proven to be insufficient", she said.

Uncertainty over electricity demand growth, which has pressured prices, and social opposition in regions like Galicia have also hit the sector, she added.

CONTEXT

Wind is a key energy source to decarbonise both the Spanish and wider European economies. So far this year, it has produced over 22% of the country's electricity, more than any other energy source.

Experts have warned that Spain risks missing its wind targets if it doesn't address issues such as local opposition in some regions and licensing bottlenecks that have weighed on the deployment of new wind farms.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, editing by Andrei Khalip and Jan Harvey)