Spain increases its attractiveness for investors in renewable energies

The EY's twice-yearly report ranks Spain as the tenth best country in the world, and Bloomberg raises it to sixth position

EY's twice-yearly Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) report ranks Spain amongst the ten most attractive countries to invest in renewable energies, after almost a decade in lower ranking positions. Specifically, this is one place higher than in the previous ranking, published last May, taking it up to tenth place, which is five positions higher than in November 2019 and maintains the growth started in 2017. It is also fifth in the European ranking.

In 2011, Spain was ranked ninth, thus representing a very attractive country for renewable energy investors out of a total of 40 countries in the ranking. However, it continued to fall down to lower positions in the ranking, reaching position 29 in 2017. It was during this year that the country started to improve its growth rate, recovering at a faster pace than during the period of negative growth.

Climatescope raises Spain to fifth position
Another report on the renewable energy sector, produced by BloombergNEF each year, raises Spain to sixth place in the world ranking for countries investing in renewable energy. The survey, that goes under the name of Climatescope, analyzes international investor interest and focuses on emerging countries. Chile occupies first place, followed by Denmark, the Netherlands, India and Ireland.

The BloombergNEF report points out that in 2019 Spain had received the most investment in renewable energy since 2011, an amount totaling 8 billion euros. 40.29% of this total can from abroad. There was also a large increase in France, compared with striking decreases in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Spain deserved special mention for solar and wind installations. Specifically, it was ranked sixth in the world for growth in the former subsector in 2019 and seventh in the latter.

Solar and wind power lead the market
In the latest edition of the EY report, issue no. 56, Spain improved in six of the eight indicators analyzed. Wind and photovoltaic solar energy were key to reaching this milestone, since they received the highest scores. With regard to photovoltaic solar energy, it was ranked eleventh, compared to 14th place in May, while solar thermal energy fell from position 13 to 15.

Traditional wind power continues to remain in a strong position, being ranked in the 19th position since May 20. Likewise, offshore wind power is in the 23rd position, climbing four positions since the last report, in which it was ranked in the 27th position. However, the biggest achievement is in hydroelectric energy, moving up to position 26 from position 36.

The United States recovered first position in the ranking, after China was only ranked first for six months. Australia was third in the ranking, pushing France out of the three first places, which moved down to seventh in the ranking. India, which moved between the third and seventh position this year, made a recovery, finally ranking fourth, followed by the United Kingdom, another country that has greatly improved since May 2018, when it was ranked ninth. Germany ranked sixth this time around, Japan eighth and the Netherlands ninth.

Need for a safe network
The report analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on the zero emissions goal. The report mentioned that "this spring, we managed to take a glimpse at what the energy industry of the future will be like", explaining that there had been a huge increase in the demand for renewable energies during lockdown, due to a reduction in the demand for traditional energy and since these are more attractive in terms of operating costs and priority access to the network, thanks to the current regulations in many markets.

With regard to the keys to the future, the EY's report stated that there was a need to use technology with the aim of guaranteeing a safe, reliable and well-balanced network. Hydrogen and artificial intelligence (AI) will play a vital role to achieve this. With regard to hydrogen, the capacity to convert hydrogen into renewable energy to create a chemical battery with a higher storage capacity than the current batteries "could change the rules of the game".

Moreover, AI algorithms, combined with the use of the IoT, sensors and big data, "could help stabilize central networks with an enhanced prediction capacity, by forecasting demand and managing assets and, as a consequence, increasing service efficiency levels".