Self-consumption barriers: high costs and processing

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has launched its Self-Consumption Roadmap to a public hearing, which sets the objective of achieving 9 gigawatts (GW) of installed power in 2030, which would be equivalent to the annual production of 9 nuclear power plants. An objective that could even reach 14 GW in the case of a very favorable scenario of high penetration.

To draw up the lines of the action plan, the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) carried out a study on the photovoltaic potential of self-consumption that identified some of the major barriers to achieving the desired levels. The surveys carried out -oriented to the residential, commercial and industrial sectors- pointed to the economic issue as the main obstacle.

According to the results, consumers believe that the price of this technology is high and there are doubts about its reliability and durability. In fact, more than half of those surveyed (56%) perceive that these facilities they carry a high cost and 1 in 4 believe that savings achieved are not enough.

Only 30.2% of non-residential sectors would be willing to make a payment for a photovoltaic self-consumption installation. Among those that in principle are not favorable to investment, more than half (53.5%) would consider this possibility with some type of financing. In the case of the residential sector, 27.1% of those interviewed would invest in this technology and only 13.3% of the most reluctant would do so with aid.

According to the analysis, the financing could increase the provision for these investments by approximately 10% in the case of residential and industrial consumers, 50% if we talk about the marketers.

Likewise, a public consultation launched by the Ministry through its website, between July and September 2020, revealed a special concern about this same issue. The 90 participating agents, representing different areas of society, focused on the need for help, either directly or through tax credits.

Regarding the costs of the system, a part of the participants of the public consultation requested an audit that would make it possible to establish pmore balanced axes and charges.

In addition, some of the consumers proposed the modification of the current electricity tariff so that its weight is greater in the variable part of the bill to send the appropriate price signals to the market that favor self-consumption.

Slow and complex processing

According to the same study provided by the IDAE, households and companies do not show significant concern about the processing of self-consumption or the management of the facilities themselves. However, the results of the public consultation revealed that bureaucracy is the main obstacle. Respondents consider the long, complex and too heterogeneous procedures depending on the autonomous communities and electricity distributors affected.

Once the consumer has made the decision to bet on this type of technology, it is essential to facilitate the part of technical, administrative and contractual management associated with the installation, so that possible delays or incidents are minimized.

The last roadmap indicates that distributors, marketers and the administration must improve and speed up the processing of procedures related to self-consumption, avoiding known bottleneck that delay the legalization of projects.

Lack of interest

Despite the fact that photovoltaic solar energy is currently known to most of the population, only 20% of consumers who have participated in the IDEA analysis are interested in knowing the viability of a self-consumption installation in their home or business.

21.3% of consumers in the residential sector are open to knowing more about this issue. Interest increases in families with a higher level of education and in homes where only one family resides: 83.3% would be willing to consider the possibility of installing solar panels in their home.

In the commercial sector the percentage is lower, only 15.5% are interested in this technology. The most skeptical justify their refusal on reasons such as “few savings on the bill”, “a lot of work and / or structural changes” and that the use of this type of equipment is “complicated”. Among the industries, although a vast majority are aware of this energy, only 15.3% are interested due to the high associated costs.

Objective of the PNIEC

If the target scenario of 9 GW is met, the Ministry highlights that self-consumption would cover a quarter of the target of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) for photovoltaics, 39 GW.

Most of the power in the target scenario would correspond to the commercial sector, with 5.7 GW, followed by the residential sector, with about 1.9 GW, and the industrial sector, with more than 1.1 GW. The average amortization period of the facilities varies between 7 and 11 years. In addition, the most populated autonomous communities are those with the greatest potential.