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The share of renewables in global power should more than double by 2030 to advance the global energy transformation, achieve sustainable development goals and a pathway to climate safety, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable electricity should supply 57 per cent of global power by the end of the decade, up from 26 per cent today.

A new booklet 10 Years: Progress to Action, published for the 10th annual Assembly of IRENA, charts recent global advances and outlines the measures still needed to scale up renewables. The Agency’s data shows that annual renewable energy investment needs to double from around USD 330 billion today, to close to USD 750 billion to deploy renewable energy at the speed required. Much of the needed investment can be met by redirecting planned fossil fuel investment. Close to USD 10 trillion of non-renewables related energy investments are planned to 2030, risking stranded assets and increasing the likelihood of exceeding the world’s 1.5 degree carbon budget this decade.

Additional investments bring significant external cost savings, including minimising significant losses caused by climate change as a result of inaction. Savings could amount to between USD 1.6 trillion and USD 3.7 trillion annually by 2030, three to seven times higher than investment costs for the energy transformation.

Falling technology costs continue to strengthen the case for renewable energy. IRENA points out that solar PV costs have fallen by almost 90 per cent over the last 10 years and onshore wind turbine prices have fallen by up half in that period. By the end of this decade, solar PV and wind costs may consistently outcompete traditional energy. The two technologies could cover over a third of global power needs.

Renewables can become a vital tool in closing the energy access gap, a key sustainable development goal. Off-grid renewables have emerged as a key solution to expand energy access and now deliver access to around 150 million people. IRENA data shows that 60 per cent of new electricity access can be met by renewables in the next decade with stand-alone and mini-grid systems providing the means for almost half of new access.

Source: IRENA

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Endesa X and Consum supermarkets have signed a deal for an initial 110 charging points for electric vehicles to be installed in the car parks of 55 of the cooperative’s centres. The first 23 are already up and running and another 20 are about to become operational. The charging points will be distributed throughout Andalusia, the Valencia Region, Castilla La Mancha, Catalonia and Murcia although the initiative will be expanded to more locations, and they will use 100% renewably-sourced electricity.

The rapid chargers to be installed are rated at up to 50 kW, which means a vehicle can be charged in about half an hour (depending on the particular vehicle and how much charge the battery has to start with), the time it usually takes customers to do their shopping. Users will have to have Endesa X’s app JuicePass (available for IOS and Android) to activate the service and start the recharging process. It will not be necessary to register to use the app, since you can charge and pay each time with a credit card.

Creating a profile in the application and registering with JuicePass has several advantages for customers: the process is expedited; detailed information of charging points, prices and operating hours is available; charging particulars can be monitored in real time and your history of charges and invoices accessed; and there are discounts off the charging price.

Consum thus becomes the first Spanish supermarket chain to implement an extensive public access recharging network – which can also be expanded – and offer its customers this new service.

Endesa X: Developing public access infrastructure

This collaboration agreement with Consum allows Endesa X to move forward in its plan to expand public access charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Last year the company announced a plan to install 8,500 charging points in public access places by 2023, with an investment of €65 million, the most ambitious plan in Spain.

In this initial phase (2018-2019), Endesa X intends to establish a network of 2,000 charging points connecting major towns and cities with more than 35,000 inhabitants and Spain’s 15,000 kilometres of major roads so as to ensure that 75% of the population has access to public charging infrastructure in their municipality. This will allow drivers to always have a charging point at a distance of less than 100 kilometres.

In the second phase (2021-2023), a further 6,500 new public access charging points will be installed in shopping centres, car parks, hotel chains, service stations and on public roads to cater to the growth in the electric vehicle market, providing greater charging infrastructure coverage in urban areas and the main strategic transport nodes both on the mainland and in the islands.

Source: Endesa X

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Acciona has put two new renewable energy projects into service in Chile in the last trimester: the San Gabriel wind farm (183 MW) in the region of La Araucanía and the Almeyda photovoltaic plant (62 MWp) in the region of Atacama. This means that the company has increased its operating capacity in the country by 84%, strengthening its position as the main generator of 100% renewable electricity in the Chilean market.

The start-up of San Gabriel and Almeyda takes Acciona’s renewables capacity in Chile to 536 MW, these two facilities joining the Punta Palmeras wind farm (45 MW) in the region of Coquimbo, grid connected in 2014, and the El Romero Solar photovoltaic plant (246 MWp) in Atacama, operational since November 2016.

Acciona’s generation capacity will continue to grow in Chile in 2020, when it will complete the construction of the Tolpán wind farm (84 MW) in the region of La Araucanía and the Usya photovoltaic plant (64 MWp) in the region of Antofagasta. These plants are expected to enter service in the middle of the year.

In recent years, Acciona’s growth in Chile has been the result of contracts awarded in two of the public energy auctions called for regulated market clients in Chile, and energy sale contracts with companies such as Google, Falabella, ENAMI, LATAM Airlines, Aguas Chañar and ECONSSA.

Source: Acciona

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The global wind and solar development company, Mainstream Renewable Power has placed a 185 MW order for the Cerro Tigre wind farm, to be located in the Antofagasta region, in Chile. The contract includes the supply and installation of 44 V117-4.2 MW wind turbines, as well as an Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement for the operation and maintenance of the wind park over the next 20 years.

The Cerro Tigre wind project, awarded in the 2016 distribution companies tender, has already received the environmental and grid connection permits. Turbine delivery is scheduled for the third quarter of 2020, while the wind park is expected to reach commercial operation in 2021.

Vestas pioneered wind energy in Chile in 2001 with the 2 MW Alto Baguales wind park. With this new order, Vestas reaches a firm order intake of almost 500 MW in 2019 alone and surpasses a total of 1,4 GW of wind installed capacity or under construction, consolidating its 40 percent market share.

The Cerro Tigre project also reinforces Vestas’ leadership in the Southern Cone region, comprising Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, where the company holds a 50 percent market share.

Source: Vestas

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Mix de generación de España en el escenario base. Fuente: BloombergNEF. Nota: El gráfico muestra una proyección para España peninsular (continental) y no incluye las islas españolas / Spain’s generation mix in the base scenario. Source: BloombergNEF. Note: The chart shows a projection for peninsular (mainland) Spain, and does not include Spanish islands

Maximizing the role of solar and wind power in the electricity systems of Spain and Chile between now and 2050 will hinge on the extent to which flexibility assets such as batteries and dynamic electric vehicle chargers are deployed and used. That is the conclusion of twin reports, published by BloombergNEF (BNEF) in partnership with Acciona.

Both Spain and Chile have world-class resources in sunshine and wind, and are therefore prime locations for the build-out of renewable energy over the next three decades. The BNEF reports model the outlook for the power generation mix of the two countries by 2050, based on various scenarios. Both Spain and Chile have ambitious targets for decarbonizing their electricity systems, the former for renewable generation, and the latter for the retirement of its entire coal-fired power station fleet. But attaining these, or getting close, will require a focus on flexibility, as well as simply pouring money into increasingly cheap renewables.

Flexibility is provided by technologies that can rapidly increase or reduce the amount of electricity they deliver to the grid, depending on the balance between supply from generators and demand from businesses and consumers. Examples are stationary storage batteries, EV chargers that charge when electric prices are low rather than at peak periods, interconnectors to other countries, and – on the fossil fuel side – quick-response gas-fired power stations.

Among the conclusions of the two reports are:

• The base-case scenario for Spain shows wind and solar generating 51% of total electricity by 2030, and as much as 75% by 2050, thanks to the fact that they are the lowest-cost options in that country for generating power.
• The base-case scenario for Chile shows wind and solar surging from supplying 13% of the country’s electricity now, to 40% by 2030, and 67% by 2050. The market is expected to be 93% supplied by all renewables in that year. In a coal phase-out scenario, the figure rises to 98%.
• In Spain, in a scenario in which battery storage costs fall more rapidly than expected, the electricity system could need 13% less gas back-up capacity by 2050, have 12% fewer emissions, and accommodate up to 94% zero-carbon generation.
• In Spain, in a scenario in which EVs are able to charge flexibly (to take advantage of hours of cheaper electricity), the added costs to the energy system of electrifying transport can be halved. It would also lead to 9% fewer emissions than in the base-case scenario.
• An increase in interconnector capacity between Spain and France would enable the share of zero-carbon electricity to be increased relative to the base-case, and at slightly lower overall cost. However, the benefits are less obvious in the long-term as the interconnector utilization drops due to wind and solar over-generating more often in both countries simultaneously.
• However, another scenario in which storage costs fail to come down as sharply as expected, would lead to 11% more emissions by 2050, and 3% higher system costs, than in the base case.
• In Chile, wind and solar represent a $35 billion investment opportunity between now and 2050, and batteries an $8 billion opportunity.
• In Chile, coal makes up 39% of electricity generation today and this is set to slide all the way to 6% in the base-case scenario, as it loses ground to cheaper wind and solar projects.
• To cut coal-fired generation further, and minimize Chile’s emissions, would require deliberate government policy and 25% more investment in new generation than in the base case.

Source: BNEF

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Parque Eólico Cavar (Navarra) / Cavar wind farm (Navarra)

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has taken another step forward in the promotion of clean energy production in Spain. The EU bank will provide EUR 50m in financing to Renovables de la Ribera, a 50-50 joint venture between Iberdrola and Caja Rural de Navarra to build a new renewable energy project – the Cavar wind complex – in Navarra, Spain.

The EIB is assisting this project via a Green Loan, the features of which are fully in line with the requirements set out in its Climate Awareness Bonds programme. As a result, it is likely to be allocated to its portfolio of loan operations financed via the issuance of these bonds.
The new project, located between the municipalities of Cadreita and Valtierra, includes four wind farms and will have an installed capacity of 111 MW. Construction will enable the creation of up to 200 jobs and the complex is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2020.

In this way, the EU bank financing provided to Renovables de la Ribera will help meet the goal proposed by the European Commission of generating 32% of the energy used in the EU using renewable sources by 2030. The new wind complex – which will not release any polluting emissions – will generate enough clean energy to meet the electricity needs of 46 500 people and will avoid the release 84 000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere a year.

Cavar is also the first wind project in Spain to sell its energy to a large corporation. A long-term bilateral contract (a Power Purchase Agreement or PPA) will see it produce 40 MW of clean energy for Nike in Europe.

The EIB and climate action

On 14 November, the EIB Board of Directors approved its new climate objectives and the new energy lending policy. The Bank will gradually increase its financing for climate and environmental objectives up to 50% by 2025, with the goal of ensuring that the EIB Group mobilises at least EUR 1bn by 2030 to promote investments helping to meet these objectives. It also announced its intention to align all EIB Group activities with the Paris Agreement. To this end, the EIB will cease financing fossil fuel-based projects from late 2021.

In 2018, the EIB provided almost EUR 1.3bn to support climate action in Spain by financing projects involving the development of cleaner means of transport and implementation of new, less polluting and more environmentally friendly production processes.

Source: Iberdrola

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The engineering and technology group Sener is a supplier of photovoltaic technology in Meteogune, a Meteo For Energy project installed at the Alava Technological Park (Basque Country, Spain) and inaugurated on Monday, 25 November.

Specifically, Sener has installed three single-row Sener PV trackers at this experimental plant. This mechanism is responsible for positioning photovoltaic modules with the aim of making an optimal use of solar radiation. Meteogune is in fact the first photovoltaic plant to feature SENER PV trackers, a technological development by SENER based on the experience acquired by the company in solar facilities around the world.

Aimed at reducing investment costs in photovoltaic power plants and with extremely high precision features, this product is part of a family of trackers for photovoltaic plants, known as Sener PV trackers, that includes single-row (used in Meteogune) and multi-row trackers (with up to 15 rows) that provide tracking along a single axis with a 2P configuration (2 modules in portrait array). Specifically in Meteogune, each solar tracker, with tracking along a horizontal single axis, covers an area of 160 sqm consisting of 80 photovoltaic modules with a total length of 40 m per row.

This Sener technology is therefore key to the performance of the photovoltaic power plant, which in addition to being an experimental plant (to test innovative technology, both the SENER PV tracker and a tracking optimization implemented by Meteo For Energy) will be used to supply a third of the power consumed by buildings E6 and E7 of the Alava Technological Park. Specifically, thanks to its solar tracker, the plant will produce 25% more energy than other fixed plants.

Driven by the start-up from Alava Meteo for Energy, which is engaged in weather forecasting and producing energy to improve the management and profitability of renewable energy plants in different parts of the world, the Meteogune plant aims to promote and digitize photovoltaic technology through R&D&i developments. This will allow conducting research and development activities in sensor systems, data analysis and artificial intelligence applications within the energy sector.

Source: Sener

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Enel Green Power España (EGPE), Endesa’s renewable energy subsidiary, has connected six new 42-megawatt photovoltaic solar plants (252 MW), it has built in Extremadura, to the grid, for an overall investment of 200 million euros. All the solar projects awarded to Endesa in the 2017 energy auction (339 MW) are now connected. These comprise six plants in Extremadura and one in Totana (Murcia), which went live in September.

EGPE was awarded 540 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar energy at the government auctions held in May 2017, with a total investment of more than 800 million euros. The company has now connected 389 MW (339 solar and 50 wind) to the grid and is finalising the construction and connection of the remaining 490 MW of wind generation facilities, which will be complete by the end of this year.

This renewable capacity is in line with Endesa’s strategy of decarbonising its generation mix. The first milestone will be to reach 8.4 GW of renewable installed capacity by 2021, compared to the current 6.5 GW, with a total investment of about 2,000 million euros.

Each of Endesa’s three photovoltaic installations in Logrosán – Baylio, Dehesa de los Guadalupes and Furatena – comprise more than 42 megawatts of capacity each (127 MW in total). The facilities cost around 100 million euros to build. These solar installations are composed of around 372,000 modules, and can generate more than 240 GWh per year, avoiding annual emissions of approximately 158,000 tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere.

In the meantime, Endesa’s three solar plants in Casas de Don Pedro and Talarrubias – Navalvillar, Valdecaballero and Castilblanco-, which cost approximately 100 million euros to build, have more than 42 MW of installed capacity each. These solar farms, composed of more than 372,000 modules, can generate approximately 250 GWh per year, avoiding the annual emission of more than 164,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

These power plants have been built based on the “Sustainable Construction Site” model implemented by Enel Green Power, which uses renewable energy during construction. This is provided by a photovoltaic system that covers the energy needs of the works, as well as the implementation of initiatives designed to involve the local population in the execution of the project.

Endesa follows a facility development model that encompasses actions to create social value for the environments in which they are built, the so-called Creating Shared Value (CSV) model. Specifically, CSV projects implemented in Extremadura have boosted employment and improved employability in Extremadura, prioritising employment of local labour to build the plants, as well as the use of local workforce for tasks related to the site, catering and accommodation services for workers, renewable energy training courses for local residents, and other local associations.

Source: Endesa

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Long-term contracts, known as power purchase agreements, are transforming how companies buy and sell renewables-based electricity in Europe with profound implications for the sector.

Scope Ratings says the surging demand for PPAs represents a profound shift in risk-bearing in the sector: from operators of unregulated renewable energy power plants (utilities, independent power producers and financial investors), on the one hand, to so-called off-takers, on the other. Besides energy suppliers, owners of generation assets increasingly find direct buyers with energy-intensive corporates.

“For the seller of electricity under a PPA, the PPA can be considered a tool of risk transformation,” says Sebastian Zank, analyst at Scope. “For the off-takers, the long-term visibility on energy procurement, potential for profit associated with PPAs and reputational benefits offset the extra risk they take on,” Zank says.

“We believe the overall impact of PPAs for sellers and off-takers is credit-supportive,” he says. However, the overall impact depends on the specifications of used PPAs and the impact on a seller’s revenue and margin recognition or an off-taker’s raw material procurement strategy.

PPAs do, however, introduce significant counterparty and forecasting risk because the contracts are complex, non-standardised transactions between a buyer and a seller unlike hedging transactions for conventional sources of electricity which typically take place on power exchanges or through short-term contracts.

The primary catalysts for PPA take-up in Europe are the phasing out of subsidies for newly installed wind and solar assets across Europe and the achievement of “grid parity” in many countries whereby solar- and wind-powered electricity generation has become competitive on price with coal, gas and nuclear power.

Owners of unregulated renewable energy assets/projects – such as Encavis, Energparc, Energiekontor, Neoen, Akuo – renewables divisions of large European utilities or financial investors – such as Octopus Investments, Aquila Capital, Greencoat Capital, Luxcara – have a natural interest to hedge electricity sales over a longer time horizon. Such long-term hedges in the form of PPAs are already well established with off-takers such as energy traders or utility incumbents, for example: Engie, Vattenfall, Axpo, Alpiq, Uniper among others.

Extra demand for PPAs is increasingly coming from industrial and corporate consumers, particularly energy-intensive companies. Aluminium supplier Alcoa, steelmaker ArcelorMittal and state railway companies Deutsche Bahn and SNCF are among those with PPAs in Europe wanting to procure environmentally friendly power supplies which they can use to burnish their “green credentials,” hence recent PPAs with renewable-energy suppliers.

The global market for corporate PPAs with direct consumers of electricity is set for a new global high this year, with the 13 GW contracted in the first nine months of the year already at the level of mid-to-long-term PPAs signed for all of 2018 – itself a record year – with much of the growth in the Americas.

Europe is catching up: “We expect continued strong growth in Europe judging by recent corporate PPAs struck in Q3 2019,” says Zank.

PPAs in EMEA, primarily Europe, will likely cover a renewables capacity of around 3 GW of electricity this year, up 30% from 2018. And this volume comes on top of the PPA signed between sellers and energy suppliers which is estimated at a volume of between 7 and 10 GW per annum (Source: Pexapark).

Another shift related to the rise in use of PPAs is the growing competition that the trading/supply businesses of incumbent European utilities face from smaller competitors. Consumers can directly procure energy volumes directly from the generator without an intermediary and newcomers, such as the energy-supply arm of British Octopus Energy, or smaller energy suppliers, such as Audax Renovables or Factorenergia, can source electricity using PPAs struck with individual renewable-energy projects without necessarily having generating assets of their own.

“In doing so, they can take on the trading and even retail operations of the incumbents,” says Zank.

Source: Scope Ratings

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Engie has relied on GES for the construction in Chile of the Calama Wind Farm (162MW) and the Capricorn Photovoltaic Plant (97MW). These are the first two renewable projects that the utility will build in Chile. The experience of GES in the country and the know-how of the company in the wind farms built for Engie in Mexico have been the best reference to be awarded this important contract. The two have a combined capacity of 259 MW. GES has already begun the detailed engineering on both projects, which will be built over a year.

Capricornio PV Plant

The Capricornio PV Plant (97MWp) will be located 35 km from the city of Antofagasta, GES will be in charge of the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction), without supplying the main equipment of the solar field, which includes both the interconnection line and the substations. With the peculiarity that GES will elaborate the specifications, supervision of the manufacture and logistics of the equipment. This represents a valuable contribution that will have an impact in the project’s execution deadlines. GES has started the detailed engineering, construction of the project will last for one year.

Calama Wind Farm

The Calama Wind Farm (162MW) will be located 12 km away from the city of Calama, also in the region of Antofagasta. GES will be in charge of the engineering and construction of all the infrastructure, both civil and electrical for the evacuation of energy generated by 36 wind turbines of 4.5 MW each with a hub height of 94 meters. GES proposed a foundation solution that allows to raise the height of the wind turbine more than four meters in order to improve the production of the wind farm. The civil works will include the construction of the foundations and platforms for the wind turbines, more than 20 km of roads and the substation building. As for the electrical works, GES will be in charge of the medium voltage network, the elevator substation and the connection with the pre-existing overhead line. The construction works will last twelve months.

Calama is the first wind farm that Engie will build in Chile. GES has previously worked with Engie on Projects Tres Mesas 3 and Tres Mesas 4 in Mexico.

In the constant search to add value to the projects in which it is involved, GES will act as integrator of the whole installation in order to provide Engie with all the documentation package for the application for permits and the necessary steps to start the commercial operation of the park.
In fact, GES’ capacity as provider of both wind and photovoltaic solutions has been decisive for the joint awarding of the projects. GES is a reference in the renewable sector in the Andean country, where it has built the Conejo photovoltaic silver, which is still among the eight largest photovoltaic plants in the country. As for the wind references, GES’ solvency in the Chilean market is backed by a solid trajectory that began in 2012, when the country started its renewable activity. During these six years, the company has built nine wind farms and installed eight, which represents more than 800 MW.

Source: GES

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