This November Giulio Volpi, Policy Officer at the DG Energy of the European Commission, will be presenting on the EU´s perspective on the Spanish energy reform at CSP Today Sevilla 2013.
The withdrawal of government support to renewables in Spain has been a serious blow to the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP industry in Europe).
Developers such as Abengoa have started a legal battle against the government to reserve a reform that they believe is not constitutional. In recent days, the Japanese industrial group Mitsubishi announced that they will also take legal action regarding the new regulation.
They entered the Spanish market in 2009 alongside local developers Acciona to develop concentrated solar power plants. The European Union aims to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. With this now only seven years away, changes in government regulation as shown in Spain pose a serious threat to the EU renewables objectives.
For this reason, the DG Energy of the European Commission has been working on new guidelines to ensure sustainable development of renewable energy with government support in other European countries.
At CSP Today Sevilla 2013 Giulio Volpi, Policy Officer at the DG Energy of the European Commission, will give his insights on the Spanish energy reforms and what can be learnt from it. He will be joined by Luis Crespo, President of ESTELA, and José Manuel Nieto who recently left Acciona to set up his own firm Proyectos y Bioenergía SL. Hermenegildo Altozano, Head of Energy and Natural Resources from Bird & Bird, and Luis Peréz de Ayala, Partner at Cuatrecasas, the law firm that will be working with Mitsubishi in their legal action against the Spanish government, will also be part of CSP Today Sevilla 2013 to discuss the legal side of the Spanish reform.
