According to the Spanish Solar Thermal Industry (Protermosolar), between 35 and 40 percent of investment in the capital of the Spanish concentrated solar power plants are foreign.
Major foreign investment funds with solar thermal interests in Spain are mobilizing to launch the relevant procedures to bring the Kingdom of Spain to international arbitration of investment under the Treaty which has the Energy Charter as consider that the latest measures taken by the Government, as the tax from 7 percent to electricity production, the elimination of the premium to the gas generated, the central requirement that only eligible for regulated rate mode and update the change in the IPC, are jeopardizing their investments in our country.
RREEF Infrastructure, the largest infrastructure asset manager for Deutsche Bank, the first German financial institution; Eiser Infrastructure Partners, an independent fund infrastructure based in London; Infrared Capital Partners, based in London and with offices in Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Sydney, and Antin Infrastructure Partners, the investment fund focused on projects in the energy sector, has hired the law firm Allen & Overy, with extensive experience in this type of action.
Year and a half ago, the law firm filed an arbitration claim against the government on behalf of 14 international investors subsidy cuts photovoltaic installations. These funds represent about 300 megawatts, nearly 10 percent of the total power installed PV in Spain.
But funds are not the only ones who are unhappy with this situation. Large Japanese companies like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu and JGC, which have alliances with companies such as Acciona, Abengoa and FCC, and have also invested in some concentrating solar thermal plants in Spain, in Cáceres or Palma del Río I and II, or Cordoba, among others CSP, have submitted a document to the Spanish government which recorded their disagree about the reforms approved by the executive and makes them sharers in his distrust when considering an investment in Spain.
The processes of international investment arbitration are mechanisms that serve to preserve and protect the investments they can make different investors in a country other than their own, when they are injured, attacked or assaulted as a result of actions or regulations of the State receiving the investment.
Before formally initiate investment arbitration have to give a series of preliminary steps. First, the interested parties must send a formal written notice to the government, informing what the discrepancies. From there, it would open a period of three months in which both parties are able to negotiate and reach a satisfactory solution.
In the event that this solution did not occur, the investor may file a complaint by one of the procedures laid down in the Treaty of the Energy Charter: before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an institution the World Bank to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), or under the provisions of the Arbitration Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
Since the claim is filed until you get the award which would be enforceable by the Spanish state, they can take three to four years.
According to the Spanish Solar Thermal Industry (Protermosolar), between 35 and 40 percent of investment in the capital of the Spanish solar thermal power plants are foreign, coming mostly from the United States, Germany, Japan, UAE, Switzerland, France and the UK, whose figure is estimated at 15,000 million euros.
According to Luis Crespo, secretary general of Protermosolar, "the damage that the government is making to renewables and, specifically, the Concentrated Solar Power, is generating a degree of mistrust and unease so high that undoubtedly cause great injury to foreign investment, not only in our industry but also in other regulated sectors in Spain ".
Domestic investors have to wait for the final settlements of 2013 to make their claims. Meanwhile, the Andalusian has filed a constitutional complaint against the Law 15/2012, Royal Decree Law 29/2012 and Royal Decree-Law 2/2013, rules calling them "attack renewable energy sector" with special emphasis on community autonomous, including the suspension of economic incentives to new facilities that has "left the air in an investment of 12,000 million euros and the creation of 40,000 jobs in Andalusia."
The concentrating solar thermal sector reached an installed capacity of 1953.9 MW in 2012 in Spain, distributed mainly in three regions: Andalusia, with 950 megawatts, Extremadura, with 660 megawatts and Castile-La Mancha, with 350 megawatts.
Also held international leadership because, at the end of 2012, had an aggregate installed capacity of 2,580 megawatts worldwide, of which 2,117 MW, ie 82 percent, were promoted or developed by Spanish CSP companies and 73 percent are owned industrial groups of the country.
Currently, many Spanish companies involved as promoters or contracts awarded turnkey EPC in promoting or construction of 2,037 megawatts solar thermal power outside Spain, mainly in the United States, South Africa, Morocco and Abu Dhabi, which represents 64 percent of the development and construction initiatives taking place right now in international markets (a total of 3,163 megawatts), according to Protermosolar.
However, as pointed Luis Crespo, "throttling to which the Government is putting the economy of the companies working in this sector in Spain will prevent us to take advantage of the big jerk that will have contests solar plants in other countries, a market that could provide a major source of export earnings and foreign income ".
In addition, as a result of legislative changes, the Spanish solar thermal sector, which contributed to Spain's economy, only concepts of contribution to GDP and taxes, a total of 2,607 million euros in 2012, compared to € 927 million received premium has been reduced by 40 percent the number of jobs, rising from 28,555 in 2011 to 17,816 in 2012.
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