“Next Generation EU funds have been a very positive instrument for promoting self-consumption and have succeeded in embedding it within Spanish society, turning it into a mainstream consumer solution for both citizens and companies,” said José Donoso, Director General of UNEF, Spain’s national solar energy association.
However, UNEF warns that the final deadline set by the European Commission for executing the investments falls as early as next summer and that, if no measures are taken to accelerate processing, there is a risk that part of the funds could be lost.
To prevent this from happening, UNEF is working with Spain’s regional administrations to identify the obstacles they are facing in managing these grants, as well as to share successful approaches and best practices implemented by those administrations that have been able to move forward more efficiently.
Source: IDAE
Among the good practices identified are greater transparency in the submission of information, reduced documentation requirements, faster and more agile procedures, the availability of appropriate platforms and communication channels, and the avoidance of duplicated processes. UNEF also recommends clearly publishing when funds have been fully allocated, in order to prevent public administrations from becoming clogged with applications that cannot progress.
“We know that all regional administrations are making a major effort to advance the management of Next Generation self-consumption grants with the human and technical resources available to them. However, the proximity of the execution deadline makes it necessary for those administrations that are progressing more slowly to implement new measures that will allow them to meet the required timelines,” Donoso stressed.
According to UNEF’s Director General, there is still time to meet the deadlines so that “citizens, retailers and industry can receive the grants they were counting on when making their investment decisions”. But to achieve this, he added, “it is essential that administrations take urgent measures to streamline the bottlenecks they are currently facing”.
