Country policy profile - Spain. December 2015

According to the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in the year 2020 for Spain is 20% (according to EurObserv'ER calculation the share was 14.2% in 2012). The Directive has a mandatory 10 % target for transport to be achieved by all Member States, which refers to renewable sources as a whole, not bio-fuels alone. In Spain, the main support scheme called 'Regimen Especial' (Royal Decree 661/2007) operated until the end of 2011 was suspended at the beginning of 2012. The price regulation system is currently phased out trough Real Decreto 9/2013. In the former system, operators could choose between two options: a guaranteed feed-in tariff and a guaranteed bonus (premium) paid on top of the electricity price derived on the free market. More recently, the 6 June, Spain approved a clean energy bill that introduces an entirely new subsidy system. The FiT and market price plus premium systems have effectively been abolished retroactively and replaced by a sum to be allocated based on the plant's installed capacity to compensate for investment-related financial outlay. Under the decree, generators will earn a rate of return of about 7.5 percent over their lifetimes. This rate, which may be revised every three years, is based on the average interest of a 10-year sovereign bond plus 3 percentage points. These measures will be implemented retroactively to apply from July 2013. Currently, there is no support scheme for RES-H and C in place in Spain but building must satisfy a minimal solar contribution of warm sanitary water. Approved in March 2006, through Royal Decree 314/2006 of 17 March 2006, the Building Technical Code (CTE - Codigo Tecnico de la Edificacion) requires all new or renovated buildings to cover 30%-70% of the Domestic Hot Water demand with solar thermal energy. Some exceptions are defined in the law, mainly in the case of buildings that either satisfy their demand of warm water by other renewables or by cogeneration or for shaded buildings. Concerning the transport, promotion of bio-fuels consists of a quota system. Here also the government has decided to review its ambition downward with his decision on 22 February 2013 to reduce its incorporation target to 4.1% in 2014 from 6.5%, with specific incorporation targets in diesel fuel that dropped from 7 to 4.1%, and from 4.1 to 3.9%