Review of Spanish renewable energy policy to encourage investment in solar photovoltaic

The Spanish renewable energy sector has experienced phenomenal growth over the past decade due to implementation of regulatory frameworks that have encouraged the rapid deployment of some renewable energy technologies particularly solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, and biomass. But the unstable regulatory frameworks, price, and quantity caps on renewable technologies and recent initiative of temporary suspension of subsidies for any new solar, wind, cogeneration or waste incineration projects have declined the growth of production of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E). The aim of this paper is to provide the current situation of promotion measurers for RES-E particularly for solar PV in Spain and regulatory changes since the feed-in-tariff was put in place in Spanish solar market. The paper also provides a critical analysis of the Spanish policy instruments and regulatory frameworks that contributed in the tremendous growth of solar PV. It also analyses the new policy instruments necessary to achieve declared 2020 RES-E targets.