The day of the blackout, many photovoltaic installation owners were surprised to verify how they ran out of light. The press of these days also highlights the cases of individuals, companies or entire peoples where they could continue to carry out their activities out of what happened. The technological “miracle” that allowed light is called backup system or backup and ensures a constant and autonomous energy supply of the general network when a breakdown is produced for example. «Most self -consumption, as they are hooked to the network, disconnected for security. However, there are a type of investors, Those who have back up, which when they detect a fall of the exterior network, can be put to work in isolated mode, cutting the connection. In this way, the self -consumption owner uses the energy it generates, ”says Raquel Paule, president of the Renewable Foundation and Secretariat of the Alliance for Self -consumption. Most facilities do not have these systems (there are no official data, but the consulted suggests that less than 5% of users have them) and are a cost of between “500-700 euros more, but they also need to have battery,” adds Paule.
Now, a few weeks after the event, the installers confirm that interest in accumulation systems has grow exponentially since April 28. «The interest in installing batteries has increased considerably and then isolated function systems will this happen again? Because in principle not; That day something happened that is not yet explained, but we believe that this interest is positive and good for the system. We have already managed to democratize the renewable generation, now we must accompany it with accumulation. Disting down the accountant of an accumulation team will allow you to play with energy and take advantage, for example, to load our battery at the time when the network price is cheaper. It is the model towards which we have to go, ”commented Enrique del Valle, president of the Commission of Industry and Energy of the National Federation of Companies of Electrical Installations, Telecommunications and Air conditioning of Spain (FENIE) and Jesús Román, general secretary.
The installed capacity Storage around 155 MWh in self -consumption, most, 60% belong to industrial self -consumption, according to the annual report of the 2024 photovoltaic self -consumption of the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA). Industrialists also represent almost 74% of everything that is installed in Spain, front to 24-26% of the residential.
Following photovoltaic figures in general, the truth is that self -consumption represents a small portion. A study published in 2024 by Global Energy Monitor states that in Spain double the solar power that Germany and France together; There are practically 30,000 MW operations in large parks and in the construction phase there are another 7,800. However, it draws attention to self -consumption because of its scarce development, “anemic growth of solar energy in the roofs” of Spain that “has become very lagging,” he says. Only 5% of the country’s solar capacity corresponds to small -scale facilities and on residential roofs, compared to 62% in Europe.
If facilities prices are already accessible (about 7,000 euros in 2023 according to APPA data), why this difference? Spain was late for self -consumption, discouraging until 2018 for the known as “Sun Tax”, the following years began to grow at a good pace and in 2022 a true boom lived with 2,500 MW new, but in the last two years the rhythm of self -consumption facilities has been slowed down, the rhythm of self -consumption facilities, going down to 26% in 2024. «In Spain there are more than 8 GW. True that Last year about 1,200-1,300 megawatts of power were installed, And what was generated with self -consumption equals 3.7% of the national electricity demand, however, the objective that we have marked in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan of Spain establishes that by 2030 we have to reach 11%. That is, we are below what we should install annually (1,700-1,800 MW) and that is worrying, ”they comment from the Alliance for Self-consumption.
Causes of delay
Among the reasons found by those consulted for this deceleration, “a perception that energy is now cheaper than in the last gas crisis and the lack of subsidies. When there are no, many people retract waiting for new calls. For us it is not the best formula to encourage installation; we would have to travel to a system of fiscal bonuses », Consider Paule. From APPA they also ask for simplified procedures and “a greater ease of access to the networks even to take advantage of surplus energy.” And from Fenie they also consider important, «the issue of distributors with what is the access point and others … those procedures have to be simple. All this sometimes takes and demotivates many citizens, ”they point out from Fenie.
Energy communities
If until now the main facilities have been industrialists or single -family housing, the challenge is now the shared generation in housing floors in city (it must be taken into account that 67% of Spaniards live in buildings) and energy communities in polygons or rural areas especially. A report from the climate action network last year remembers that «Spain has 5.4 GW of autoconsumo installed and has increased by 1,200% since 2018, but only 1% of it is collective».
Oseja de Sajambre, a town of just 300 inhabitants in the Pyrenees also did not suffer the blackout because they have their own energy supply infrastructure and an island operation system. This solution has saved them from the blackout and also protects them for years from isolation in winter. These communities or “energy islands” guarantee the stability of the supply in rural or difficult access areas such as and are living a real boom in recent years. There are at least 357 energy communities already constituted according to the Common Energy Observatory (initiative developed by Ecodes and Redeia).
However, this type of installation also has its difficulties. Berta Caballero is starting a community in Masegoso de Tajuña (Guadalajara) and lives them in the first person. The greatest, he says, “is the regulations that requires that it be generated and consumed within a radius of 500 meters (In the case of industrial land the radio is 2km) ». In their town they have an old degraded space where people formerly threw garbage and are cataloged as rustic soil. «It would be ideal because a plot that is no longer useful for agriculture would no longer be used, but with the law in hand many neighbors would be out of the community. In the area where we are, between Guadalajara and Soria, there are many small villages together. If the regulations were changed, we could gather three villages in the same energy community ». Raquel Paule of Alliance for Self -Consumption comments that to develop these collective autoconsumos also in housing blocks, «the RD 244 of 2019, which currently governs self -consumption, has been a very good Royal Decree -marked a before and after and thanks to it these 8 gigawatts have been reached with which we currently have -but for the second stage we need a new regulatory text. Several of the barriers we have today. We believe that the figure of collective self -consumption manager is very important and should be in regulation to expedite many of the procedures of shared self -consumption. It would also be necessary to reduce the times of permits or the application times for access to the network. And our star petition, which is to increase the distance between generation and consumption, which is currently in 2 kilometers. We believe that in certain circumstances it is insufficient, especially in rural areas or when you want to make energy communities in an industrial estate and give that surplus to that population. The installers remember that “there is still much to do in self -consumption and a lot of space to occupy in the roofs,” they say.