By Jason Deign in Barcelona

It looks great on paper. With the current approval process for wind energy farms taking an average of seven years, the Catalan government has given the go-ahead to seven priority development zones where projects could be fast-tracked in 14 months.

The zones, called Zones de Desenvolupament Prioritari or ZDPs in Catalan, have been pre-approved in terms of wind energy, grid access, urban planning and environmental and landscape impact, so developers can be more or less assured of getting an OK on projects.

ZDPs are in stark contrast to the former development process, which involved developers picking a seemingly suitable spot for wind energy farms and then facing potential hurdles in terms of administrative approvals and access to the electricity grid.

The Catalan government, or Generalitat, believes the seven approved ZDPs, plus another one which is still being defined, will give the industry the push it needs in order to meet Catalunya’s aim of having 3,500 MW of wind energy farms installed by 2015.

According to the Generalitat, 653.1 MW are already in service. A further 267.6 MW are under construction, 973.3 MW have been authorised, applications for 534.7 MW are being processed and 300 MW will be provided by small installations of up to 10 MW or five turbines.  

The ZDPs, which are being set aside for developments of more than 10 MW or five turbines, are expected to add an additional 834 MW of energy to the region, bringing the total to 3,562.7 MW. “We think it’s feasible,” says Generalitat Economy Department spokesperson Adam Sedo Gali.

Missing target

But the industry does not buy the figures. Jaume Morron, manager of the Wind Energy Association of Catalunya (EolicCat), reckons Catalunya will miss its target by about 500 MW.

“Two years ago we had a pipeline of 4,000 MW and if the approval process had been speeded up then we would have reached 3,500 MW easily,” he says. “Instead, the government decided to go down this route.

“We fully support it, but there are many wind farms which will not get through the approval process, which will leave us with about 3,000 MW.”

Two ZDPs are under particular scrutiny. One, in the Alt Empordà, has had its original capacity reduced from 200 MW to 180 MW. Another, the yet-to-be-defined ZDP in Priorat-Baix Camp, is supposed to add 45 MW but Morron suspects it will remain on the drawing board.  

While Sedo Gali states “it is the Government’s intention that we will get approval” for Priorat-Baix Camp, Morron says: “The four councils that make up this ZDP are very much against. Fundamentally, I don’t think they want to see turbines on the land.

“So I’m very pessimistic about the chances of developing wind energy there.”

Projects paralysed

The debate over the exact capacity of the ZDPs, however, is somewhat academic given that the bulk of Catalunya’s planned wind energy provision falls outside of them.

To meet the Autonomous Community’s target, says Morron: “First, all the wind farms formerly under consideration will have to be approved and built. Second, the ZDPs have to be developed as a matter of priority and they have to be viable, which we have our doubts about.

“Third, we will still have to find an additional 500 MW of capacity.”

Eduard Sala de Vedruna, research director for Europe Wind Energy Advisory at Emerging Energy Research, agrees that achieving all this by 2015 is unlikely. “It’s one thing to get the additional supply and another to get it in five years,” he says.

“From now until 2015 you would have to install 2,800 or 2,700 MW. That’s going to be tricky. EolicCat has members who are putting a lot of effort into developing projects which have been paralysed by the planning process.” 

As a result, he predicts: “The plan will be achieved, but with delays. There could be a delay of a year or so.”

Tariff uncertainty

And that is provided the Spanish government does not pull the rug from under developers’ feet with a scaling back of feed-in tariffs, an issue which has the industry on tenterhooks and over which the Generalitat has no control.

“It seems a bit ambitious to expect an additional 500 MW a year in Catalunya, especially with a growth inhibitor such as the current uncertainty over tariffs,” Sala de Vedruna concludes.

Clearly this would be a blow for Catalunya’s image as a renewable energy leader. But with the potential to fast-track developments through ZDPs, it looks as though the Generalitat is finally taking a step in the right direction.

The industry is now hoping it can follow this up with a speedier approval process overall, to ensure the glut of non-ZDP projects still being considered see the light of day before 2015. Morron, however, is not holding his breath.

“With the Generalitat’s track record so far, you can draw your own conclusions,” he says.

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