Galician wind developers will have to provide at least 50% of the energy they produce to Community companies at a “stable and competitive” price. This was announced on Tuesday by the Minister of Economy and Industry, María Jesús Lorenzana, during her appearance in Parliament to report on the strategic lines of her department in energy and industrial matters, in a mandate in which, in addition, the Autonomous Government Administration It will promote the repowering of the oldest parks, the reformulation of the wind royalty or the updating of the Galician wind sector plan, among others. All these measures are aligned with the law on natural resources and the objectives of the European Union, he defended, which promotes self-sufficiency and decarbonization of the sector among its member countries.
With this new measure, which will imply that wind developers will have to sign a PPA – energy purchase and sale contracts – with Galician companies for at least half of their production, It will be guaranteed that 50% of the energy will remain in the Community. All this, said Lorenzana, with a “double objective”: “to give access to PPAs to small and medium-sized companies which, currently on the market, did not have the capacity to sign these contracts” and to guarantee that this energy is “in apart from fluctuations in gas prices. In this regard, he highlighted the role that the Galician Marketing Company will play in the democratization of these contracts, which, in addition, he recalled, will offer residents close to the parks in which the public-private partnership participates Resources from Galicia cheaper energy.
It is one of the strategic lines of the energy policy of the Xunta, he explained, so that Galicia accesses an “advantageous situation in Europe” in this “new industrial era”. In this sense, he recalled that the Xunta will update the wind sector plan, from 20 years ago; established the obligation to repower wind turbines that will be 25 years old in the next five years; and is working on the reformulation of the wind fee, which will be updated taking into account the height of the wind turbines and not just their quantity.
All these measures are aligned with the objectives of European policy, said the minister, which in addition to focusing on the EU’s energy supply, promotes the development of renewable energies and self-supply of critical minerals – on 34 detected, Galicia is home to 15, such as lithium, tungsten or rare earths. In this sense, he explained that in industrial matters, in accordance with the provisions of the Natural Resources Law, he announced that before the end of the year, the plans of Xunta claim 60 mining rights between the four provincesafter a preliminary analysis of those that had expired. Strategic minerals and “safe mining” will be “priority”, he said, to promote a sector which represents 8.2% of the country’s mining production with a value of more than 282 million euros .
Likewise, with regard to the forestry sector, he highlighted the creation of a voluntary carbon credit marketso that businesses and citizens can see their emissions offset and contribute to climate neutrality by financing projects that pursue these objectives. All this is part, he stressed, of an industrial policy based on collaboration with industrial sectors to strengthen their weaknesses; strengthening self-sufficiency in indigenous raw materials and closing production cycles in Galicia; accelerate the administrative procedures of strategic projects for the Community; and quickly make commercial land available to potential interested parties for the establishment of new industries.
“Another advertisement for the gallery”
An appearance that the nationalists defined as “another advertisement for the gallery”, denouncing “six years of ineffective policies that relegate the Galician industry to the rank of spectator”, as criticized by deputy Brais Ruanova in statements collected by Ep. In the same sense, the criticisms of the socialists, who accused the Xunta of acting “in a hurry, without strategy and without fixed direction”. An “improvisation” in which the group, declared MP Patricia Iglesias, frames the “privatization of natural resources”.
