Industrial Decarbonisation and Battery Storage Challenges in Valencia
The battery supply chain presents a significant industrial opportunity for the Valencian Community but it also introduces complex regulatory grid and technological sovereignty challenges. During a recent panel organised by FEMEVAL and VALMETAL industry experts highlighted the importance of developing local supply chains while warning about growing dependency on Chinese technology.
AEPIBAL Vice-President and HESSTEC CEO Eugenio Dominguez expressed concern that a portion of public funding allocated for energy storage development could benefit Chinese manufacturers. He emphasised that nearly 90 percent of conversion devices are sourced from China and he warned that such dependency risks giving control of vital energy infrastructure to foreign entities. Dominguez pointed out that existing PERTE funding programmes do not penalise foreign technology use unlike European funds which favour local suppliers and integrated value chains.
He also linked these issues to broader systemic problems in Spains electricity grid. Dominguez criticised the current grid regulations stating that the systems inflexibility prevented effective responses during recent outages with solar generation not acting due to regulatory constraints. This inflexibility hampers the deployment of renewables and the integration of batteries for grid stabilisation.
The debate centred on grid flexibility and how batteries can enable industrial growth and energy sector modernisation. Raul Carbonero of GENIA Solar highlighted that storage has transitioned from a commodity to a strategic system component. The recent Real Decreto-ley 7 offers new opportunities through fiscal incentives for storage installations and demand flexibility regulation. These measures could unlock previously inaccessible industrial and energy projects by optimising existing network capacity.
Many projects in Valencia face hurdles such as network saturation and administrative delays notably due to a lack of qualified municipal technical staff and complex certification procedures. This has led some developers to abandon potentially viable projects citing the phenomenon of demand zero whereby no capacity can be connected due to grid constraints.
Furthermore Carbonero noted the transformational approach of considering storage as an independent renewable asset not solely tied to photovoltaic plants. Batteries can now be seen as both a load and a source expanding their utilisation in the energy ecosystem.
Anabel Gutierrez from SAPIENS Energia promoted the concept of shared storage and community energy models which facilitate participation in flexibility markets. Such models can generate revenue streams for batteries reducing operational costs and encouraging community and SME involvement.
Juanjo Catala of ASELEC warned that rapid growth in battery markets might mirror issues observed with decentralised generation such as mismanagement and substandard service quality. He stressed the importance of acknowledging regional differences especially emphasizing Valencia's favourable geography and access to land for infrastructure compared to other regions.
Overall while the Valencian battery and renewable sectors have promising potential, realising this opportunity requires tackling systemic grid regulatory and geopolitical challenges notably the over-reliance on foreign technology and the need for localised industrial development.