Voting on March 10th: Derogation rejected and L14/2010 remains as it was.
late February the commission of the Spanish Senate for Economic and Treasury Affairs approved a derogation of the hour profiles of L14/2010, which was voted on favourably in the Senate on the 23rd of February, to be voted in the Congress. The latter was going to be the bottleneck, given the voting practices until now, it was unlikely that these amendments would succeed. Success of these amendments would have had a very positive impact on market climate for renewables in Spain. You can read the amendment for yourself in this PDF:
UNFORTUNATELY THE AMENDMENT HAS BEEN REJECTED.
You can read the history of the process here:
UPDATE 24-02-2011: The Senate approved the amendments, the Congress will vote on their approval or rejection next Wednesday the 2nd of March. We keep our fingers crossed, and hope that the congresspeople of PSOE and CIU enter into reason, without those the amendments will not make it.
UPDATE 28-02-2011: The Congress will vote on the approval or rejection of the above mentioned amendments next week between the 8th and the 17th of March. No agenda has yet been published for the voting. More time to influence dissident voters!
UPDATE 03-03-2011: The agenda has been published, and although for the time being I can't find the item on it, rumours in the sector say that the derogation will be voted on next 10th of March.
UPDATE 10-03-2011: All parties have delivered their discourse, however, CIU did this without defining its vote, my interpretation is abstention. With CIU not voting the amendments will not be approved. PNV has not delivered their opinion in congress because they are probably still negotiating their vote / abstention with Minister Sebastián.
The result of the voting is that the derogation has not been approved, and L14/2010 is retroactively applicable.
This image shows the voting: present were 342 MP, in favour 161 and against 181.
New rumours want that a deal was made soothe the effects, but for the time being the judiciary route seems to be the most appropriate again.
UPDATE 10-03-2011, 18:26: We just received a press release from APPA, stating that we are all very sorry about this, and that negotiations will continue to take place. CIU and PNV are now to support the PV sector in its negotiations with the Ministry. The image which comes to my mind is of a school yard fight, where one bully beats the shit out of the guy wearing the goggles, and the two smaller bullies tell him not to beat too hard...
PRESS RELEASE APPA ASIF ANPER AEF
Of course it is good news that the dialogue goes on, I would strongly recommend affected parties to initiate litigation. Both paths are complementary, if the negotiations fail eventually, the judiciary route will serve as a backup.
For the time being L14/2010 will be applied, and remedies should be sought.
We will publish a summarized update on the judiciary route asap.