Spain environment ministry approves Juwi’s 450MW PV project plans

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  Juwi: The latest approval 'is just an intermediate step in the process – although an important milestone.' Image: Juwi

Spain’s Ministry of Environmental Affairs has approved a 450MW PV project, which Germany-based renewable energy firm Juwi plans to develop in Mula, in the the country's Murcia region.

The development would cover 1,088 hectares, and require a further EUR450 million (US$499 million) investment from Juwi.

When announced in May 2013, the project was assigned ‘strategic’ status by the government of Murcia in order to cut in half the time needed to obtain the necessary authorisations. The project was expected to create 200 jobs during the design phase and more than 1,000 jobs during construction and engineering.

A Juwi spokesman told PV Tech that the latest approval “is just an intermediate step in the process – although an important milestone”.

He added that the next major step is to gain administrative authorisation and project approval from the Ministry of Industry. Juwi hopes to receive these specific approvals by the first quarter of 2016.

The spokesperson added: “We have been busy working on the project since 2012 and hope to have received all approvals by Q4 2016."

The news comes after difficult conditions for the solar industry in Spain.

Back in January 2014, Juwi announced that it would pull out of its Spanish operations and cut a total 80 jobs in Europe as part of restructuring efforts.

Meanwhile, the Spanish government has introduced a range of punititive retroactive policies targetting solar installations receiving the country's feed-in tariff and other forms of support. The most recent, in June, was a proposed “sun tax” on the use of batteries for residential self-consumption of solar energy in Spain which would be punishable by a fined double that for leaking radioactive waste. However, in less than a week, more than 180,000 Spanish citizens signed a petition against plans.

It is understood the Murcia project will be built without any FiT support, instead competing in the open market with other generation technologies.