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The Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda has expanded by 93 million euros the aid line for self-consumption with renewable energy sources, electricity storage and the implementation of renewable thermal systems, which it is endowed with Next Generation European Funds and managed by the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN). This is the third budget increase that this line has received, and in total its allocation, which was initially 115 million euros, has increased to 363 million euros.
This increase in budget aims to cover the maximum number of requests possible. Since its opening, at the end of 2021, ICAEN has received more than 85,000 requests for grants linked to this program, which far exceed the available budget. The instability of energy prices and the growing involvement of citizens in the transition towards a new cleaner and more participatory energy model, which contributes to dealing with the current climate emergency situation and puts people at the center, have generated a large volume of aid requests for the installation of self-consumption and energy management systems.
The successive expansions of the budget are allowing the total number of beneficiaries to grow, but they have also extended the processing deadlines. In this sense, the ICAEN has strengthened its structure to reduce the management deadlines for each file and decrease the response periods for each applicant, in order to minimize uncertainty. Since the last quarter of 2023, the grants are already being paid to those applicants who were granted the grant and have already justified the installation made.
The purposes of this line are to encourage the practice of self-consumption from renewable energies in the different areas of society, to facilitate the installation of storage systems that contribute to managing the energy generated by equipment self-consumption, and also encourage the thermal use of renewable energies. The program is aimed at practically all sectors of society, from industry to services through the domestic sphere and administrations.
Self-consumption, a priority for Catalonia
The self-production of electricity from photovoltaic solar energy has been and is a priority for Catalonia, as it is one of the basic axes for the transition towards a new energy model that is cleaner, sustainable, participatory and fair . The generalization of the practice of self-consumption is a thermometer of the involvement of citizens with the energy transition, since it allows people to go from being just consumers to generating, managing and consuming their own energy.
For this reason, the Generalitat has been a pioneer in the application of regulatory measures and incentives in order to detect and eliminate legal, technical and economic barriers to self-consumption. The Energy Outlook of Catalonia for the year 2050 calculates that, together with the electrification of demand and the reduction in energy consumption, there must be up to 500,000 self-consumption installations in service per year 2050 to meet the challenge of decarbonisation of the Catalan economy and society.