Importance of renewable energies in achieving European objectives
In September 2020, the European Commission, as part of the European Green Deal, proposed the objective by 2030 of further reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels. To achieve this, an increase in energy efficiency and renewable energies is essential. To do this, the key objectives were set down of achieving at least a 32% renewable energy quota and at least a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency.
To achieve these objectives, Spain has prepared the 2021-2030 Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (abbreviated to PNIEC), which will serve to determine the level of overall compliance and establish actions to correct possible deviations.
In this Plan, the planned objective is to achieve a 42% presence of renewable energies in final energy consumption by 2030, thanks to planned investments in electric and thermal renewables, and a notable reduction in final energy consumption thanks to energy savings and efficiency programmes and measures in all sectors of the economy.
Furthermore, through self-consumption, distributed generation, demand management and the promotion of local energy communities, as well as specific measures aimed at promoting the proactive role of citizens in decarbonisation. The aim is to increase the diversity of players and the existence of participation projects in both renewable energy production and in the energy system as a whole.
In this respect Royal Decree 244/2019 of 5 de abril completes the regulatory framework on self-consumption, boosted by Royal Decree-law 15/2018, which repealed the so-called “Sun tax”, providing certainty and peace of mind to users and developing, among other things, the following regulatory specifications:
- Definition of installations for the purposes of self-consumption.
- Establishment of the administrative, technical and economic conditions for the self-consumption of electrical energy.
- Development of individual and collective self-consumption.
- Establishment of a simplified balancing system between the deficits of consumers and the surplus of their self-consumption installations.
- Organisation of the electrical energy self-consumption administrative register, and its registration process, which involves no administrative burden for consumers.
Moreover, we can now opt for two methods of self-consumption:
- Self-consumption WITHOUT surplus: the storage systems with batteries allow for a better management of demand peaks while reducing pressures on the power grids.
- Self-consumption WITH surplus: installations which, in addition to supplying energy for self-consumption, inject or deliver surplus energy to the power grid.
With either method, self-consumption installations offer consumers attractive savings on their electricity bill, as well as contributing to reducing emissions and achieving the objectives set down by the European Commission.
One way of utilising the benefits of self-consumption is through the installation of electric heating systems designed specifically to work in domestic photovoltaic installations, such as the Ecombi SOLAR storage heaters. These heating appliances are capable of utilising all the surplus of the self-consumption installation and converting it into heating by storing the heat inside them. Clean and sustainable heating generated by the solar panels.