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Energy experts call for ambitious regulatory measures to reach 2030 target

| News | Tax / Corporate Law and M&A / Public and Regulatory Law

The Declaration on the Climate and Environmental Emergency in Spain includes programmatic measures but does not improve the regulation that facilitates investment and allows the execution of these measures. The autonomous regions should take advantage of the regulatory margin they have to facilitate the framework of the procedure and be able to achieve the EU's objective

Experts from the energy sector said today that achieving the 2030 objective requires adapting the regulations and called for specific regulatory measures to facilitate the development of the sector, favour investment and reduce bureaucratic obstacles.

This was made clear during the conference 'Towards a new energy model. Regulation and financing of energy projects. Challenges and opportunities of the energy transition in Andalusia', organized by Andersen Tax & Legal and CESUR, with the participation of Fernando Arauz, Secretary General of Industry, Energy and Mines of the Ministry of Finance, Industry and Energy of the Andalusian Government, José Manuel Pumar, Managing Partner of the Seville office of Andersen Tax & Legal, and Fernando Seco, Executive Vice President of CESUR.

During the conference, Carlos Morales, director at Andersen Tax & Legal, and Antonio Alfonso Pérez Moreno, partner at Pérez Moreno Abogados, a collaborating firm of Andersen Global, spoke about the regulatory challenges of renewable energy projects, while Álvaro Silva, of counsel at Andersen Tax & Legal, and Ignacio Blanco, director at the firm, together with Rubén Martínez Cartaña, director of Project Finance at Banco Sabadell, addressed the impact on commercial and tax aspects, as well as the financing of energy projects. The challenges and opportunities of the energy transition were also analysed in a round table discussion in which Alfonso Vargas, president of the Andalusian Renewable Energy Cluster (CLANER), Jaime Ventura, president of Idesa, Jorge Juan Jiménez, managing director of the Andalusian Energy Agency, José Luis Pérez, director of e-distribution at Endesa, and Carlos Mínguez, partner at Andersen Tax & Legal, participated.

In his speech, José Manuel Pumar said that "the fight against climate change is one of the main challenges of the EU and achieving it, in addition to the initiatives of the administration, will depend on the capacity of private agents to face the new challenges in a highly competitive sector".

For his part, Fernando Seco said that "we have an historic opportunity to turn Andalusia into the largest source of solar energy in Europe. A situation that, he said, "depends to a great extent on the close and efficient collaboration of energy distributors and the administration, because there is plenty of private capital". Seco added that for this opportunity to become a reality, it is necessary "the provision of more green energy points will benefit the agricultural industry, tourism and the maintenance of the rural population.

The Secretary General of Industry, Energy and Mines of the Andalusian Government stated that "Andalusia requires its own energy policy, with demanding and realistic criteria, as the autonomous region has one of the best resources available in Spain and we must put it to good use in order to be self-sufficient and competitive in price". Fernando Arauz recalled that in 2019, 1112 new MW were put into operation, with the completion of 26 new clean energy projects and more than 37 million euros were allocated to encourage self-consumption, while adding that in the last six months 19 million have been allocated to promote clean transport and, since December, a new package of measures has been promoted, with 100 million euros, to improve energy efficiency.

Arauz emphasized the need to develop a new model of energy consumption and generation, for which it is essential to focus on regulation, technological advances, improvement of transport infrastructure and financing, since, he said, more than 90% of the funds for the execution of large projects come from private initiative.

As for the regulatory challenges, Carlos Morales, director at Andersen Tax & Legal, said that the EU's 2030 Objective, which obliges member states to reduce their emissions, increase the generation of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency, requires investment, so, he said, "ambitious regulatory measures are needed to ensure the proper implementation of projects and investment associated with them, freeing them from what sometimes turns out to be an administrative crossroads”. On this point, he regretted that the Declaration on the Climate and Environmental Emergency in Spain approved by the small programmatic Government, by establishing an energy mix of 70% of renewables that includes the shutdown of nuclear power, systematizing the auctions or implementing zero emission zones in all cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, without taking advantage of the regulations that facilitate financing and allow the implementation of these measures. For this reason, he encouraged the autonomous regions to take advantage of the regulatory margin they must improve the framework procedure in order to achieve the 2030 objective.

In this regard, Antonio Alfonzo Perez stressed that Andalusia is a pioneer in its commitment to renewable energy, which has regulations governing both the energy sector and to combat climate change and said that the challenge is the implementation of the rule.

In this regard, Antonio Alfonzo Perez stressed that Andalusia is a pioneer in its commitment to renewable energy, which has regulations governing both the energy sector and to combat climate change and argued that the challenge is the implementation of the standard.

During the roundtable, the heads of CLANER, Andalusian Energy Agency, Endesa and Idesa agreed that Andalusia has knowledge and know-how to meet the technological challenge and we have a great opportunity to modernize the regulation that allows the development of projects, since this is the time when the sector is booming and, moreover, as a country we must face a strategic community plan.

For their part, Ignacio Blanco and Álvaro Silva, from Andersen Tax & Legal, together with Rubén Martínez, from Banco Sabadell, stressed that self-consumption projects have financing facilities, both through project finance and with new financing models that are being developed, and offer profitability to users without running risks.

You can see the video summary of the conference from here.

 

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