Council of Ministers will debate floating photovoltaics in Spain

The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, assured this Tuesday during her appearance in the Senate, that she trusts that the royal decree for the installation of floating photovoltaic plants will be submitted to the approval of the Government “in the coming weeks”, before summer, having the comments of the Council of State already incorporated.

The third vice president of the Government explained that once the draft text was published, in March 2022, those responsible for water and energy at the Ministry embarked on “intense and complex” work that culminated in sending the file to the Council of State, which made “several suggestions.”
Basically, Ribera said, the Government’s advisory body requested that there be “a single window for a single procedure in the processing of files, in which energy and water would respond in unison.” “Obviously we have to be careful because competition in energy matters also depends on the power,” stressed the minister, who sees this technology as a “relevant” solution, as proof that it is contemplated in the National Integrated Energy Plan. and Climate or Pniec.

Likewise, it is included as a reference for innovative renewables that “can count on their own contribution from the Recovery Plan,” she added. “We hope to have it in the coming weeks and, after complex months between those responsible for energy and water at the Ministry, to be able to submit this royal decree to the Council of Ministers incorporating the comment, which is not the only one, of the Council of State,” he responded to the senator of the Basque Parliamentary Group Igotz López.

On March 31, 2022, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition released this royal decree to public information, the wording of which at that time allowed the installation of a maximum of three plants per reservoir and established the surface they could cover depending on the trophic state of the waters, so that the worse the quality, the greater the coverage could be.
The installation of these floating solar plants on reservoirs aims to support renewable generation, since the capacity of these installations will be added to the energy produced by hydroelectric plants, increasing production and optimizing electricity evacuation infrastructure. In addition, photovoltaic plants have a higher energy performance than terrestrial systems due to the cooling effects of water and the lower presence of dust in reservoirs.