Royal Decree 962/2024: Offshore Renewable Energy Production

On 24 September 2024 the Spanish Government approved Royal Decree 962/2024 governing offshore renewable energy production. The key takeaways from this new regulation are as follows:

• The new Royal Decree outlines a new bidding process for securing sites, remuneration, grid capacity, and sea concessions for offshore wind and other marine energies in Spain’s territorial waters. While this is the general rule for all offshore energy generation facilities, smaller-scale innovative projects and those located in ports of general interests may be exempt from such bidding process.
• Prior to the commencement of the bidding processes, the Government will hold a phase of public consultation (public dialogue) to collect feedback from stakeholders, such as local communities and other marine users. This step is aimed at recognizing potential impacts and prospects linked to the projects.
• The bidding process shall be opened only in respect of certain specific areas within the Spanish territorial sea known as “areas of high potential for marine renewables” as previously identified by the Government. There are up to nineteen areas available covering an aggregate surface area of approximately 4,500 square kilometres.
• These areas shall be awarded through a competitive bidding process. The assessment of the bids by the Government will consider, in addition to price, other factors such as environmental and socio-economic impact, promotion of local employment and circular economy, among others. In fact, up to 30% of the evaluation criteria will be non-price-related.
• Successful bidders will be granted simultaneously the economic regime for renewable energy, an access capacity allocation for the transmission grid and a preferred right for obtaining concessions for public domain seawater. In the next steps, the projects will need to obtain grid access permits, sea concessions, a positive environmental impact statement and (mutatis mutandi) all other standard regulatory approvals to develop onshore renewable projects.
• Notices for public dialogue and calls for bids shall be governed by future ministerial orders, which will outline the precise criteria and specifications for each bidding process. Among other aspects, these orders will include the timetable and details for the bidding process, including the documentation required for the bids, the reserve price (maximum economic bid price) and the risk price (minimum economic bid price).
• The rights granted to the awardees of these bids may be transferred to third parties subject to approval from the Government and provided that the assignee meets at least the same legal, technical and financial solvency than the assignor.
• According to the very recently approved 2023 version of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the Government aims to install up to 3GW of floating wind capacity and 60MW of other marine renewables by 2030.