Pamplona
The Government of Navarra has received 12,000 requests for aid for the installation of electric panels since 2021. In this period of time, the regional executive has received nearly 36 million from European funds managed by the Central Government, which has invested in processing “part” of the requests, but in Hora 14 Navarra, the Director General of Energy of the Government of Navarra, Uxue Itoiz, acknowledges that approximately 30% of the requests “are still on the waiting list because the funds are insufficient.”
He acknowledges that “there has been an unprecedented number of applications” of more than 12,000 and insists that more funds are needed “because the European ones have run out.” The regional executive urges the ministry “to give the communities more funds” although it also understands that it is necessary to invest its own funds. The department is in the process of preparing the budgets for 2025 and “this is an important line, to attend to these requests and those that are coming in,” Itoiz assured.
In Navarre, more than half of the energy is generated by renewables, especially wind power, which accounts for around 41% compared to 4% from photovoltaic energy. According to the data provided by Itoiz, Navarre has gone from 15 MW (megawatts) of solar panel power to 200, a growth that has been described as “exponential”. The residential sector accounts for the largest number of solar panel installations with more than 8,000 installations carried out in Navarrese homes, while installations in the industrial sector do not reach 500. The Director General of Energy highlights these data and clarifies that despite having fewer installations in companies “the power accounts for half” since, as she explains, “homes install panels with considerably lower powers”.
