Catalonia is still far from achieving its energy sovereignty goals for 2030, a year in which renewables must cover 50% of electricity demand, according to the PROENCAT plan. Currently, according to data from the Observatory of Renewable Energies of Catalonia (OBERCat), renewable generation would need to increase by 82.8% to meet these objectives. This is something the new executive has not overlooked and is prioritizing for the new term.

The Government, which met this morning in a new session of the Consell Executiu, analyzed the state of renewable energies in Catalonia and began a study of the necessary measures to advance towards a more sustainable, democratic, and decentralized energy system, accelerating the decarbonization process underway in Catalan society.

For the 2024-2025 term, the executive has put forward several measures aimed at boosting the installation of new renewable energy capacity. Among these actions, the Government emphasized its commitment to securing approval for the Sectorial Territorial Plan for the Implementation of Renewable Energies (PLATER), reducing the bureaucratic burden of projects and speeding up the processing times. It also aims to promote sources of generation that have not been sufficiently developed, such as offshore wind energy and biogas.

On the other hand, the executive also plans to take various actions to strengthen the charging network for electric mobility, even considering the installation of charging points in public buildings through L'Energètica, the public energy company of Catalonia. In this area, the Government has also committed to working on developing a regulatory framework for batteries, an emerging sector that, according to the executive, "requires clear regulations to provide legal certainty."

The state of renewables in Catalonia

Renewable energies covered 13.6% of Catalonia’s electricity demand in 2023, while the target set by PROENCAT 2050 is 54% by 2030. Additionally, the growth in installed capacity has been minimal in recent years: wind energy grew by 130 MW between 2020 and 2024, reaching 1,406 MW, and ground-mounted photovoltaic solar energy gained 62 new MW, reaching 351 MW.

In fact, the installed capacity of each technology is far from the targets set by PROENCAT for 2030. While rooftop photovoltaic solar energy is at 45% of the goal, onshore wind energy has only achieved 26%, and ground-mounted photovoltaic solar energy stands at 8%.