Abstract
In this study, we focus on the case of Spanish energy policy and its implications for sustainable energy development. In recent years, Spanish legislation has changed dramatically in its approach to sustainable energy sources. This change is despite EU and international efforts to increase energy efficiency, and to accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources (RES) in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the socio-technical transitions literature, this paper assesses the role of the new legislation in this altered scenario, and analyzes the evolution of energy production in Spain in the EU context. The results are triangulated with two expert assessments. We find that Spanish energy policy is responding to the energy lobby’s demands for protection for both their investment and their dominant position. This has resulted in a reduction in the number of investors combined with a lack of trust in both local and foreign investors in the sustainable energy sector, affecting also social innovations in energy transitions. We conclude that Spain is a particular case of concomitance between the energy sector and political power which raises concern about the viability of a higher level of energy sovereignty and the achievement of international commitments regarding climate change.
Highlights
There is increased public awareness of the diminishing capacity of the environment to assimilate the impacts of human activity, and increased demands for environmental sustainability [1,2]
Spanish energy policy in the first decade of the 2000s has moved from strong economic support for new facilities based on their environmental benefits, and clear compensation criteria and regulatory guarantees which provide security for investment [63,64,65], to a less ambitious policy following the economic crisis
This later policy is characterized by reduced remuneration for both existing and new facilities, increased uncertainty related to complex technical criteria, and no guarantee of mid-term regulatory stability in what can be understood as a change to the regime
Summary
There is increased public awareness of the diminishing capacity of the environment to assimilate the impacts of human activity, and increased demands for environmental sustainability [1,2]. While there is some convergence in how EU countries are responding to climate risks, and to the energy challenge in particular [19,20,21,22,23,24], states’ environmental and energy policies combined with their individual market characteristics are continuing to shape the particularities of how policy innovation, adoption, and implementation within countries is taking place [25,26,27,28,29] In response to this heterogeneity, there is a considerable body of recent research that is devoted to understanding this socio-technical transition phenomenon, and especially from a multi-level perspective (MLP) [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]. The study is relevant because, to date, the case of Spain has received little academic attention apart from the significant contributions by Dinica [51,52,53] especially concerning wind energy
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