“There should be a stipend for the demonstration plants,” suggests Paqui Rubio, the director of R+D of the Instituto de Sistemas Fotovoltaicos de Concentración.
ISFOC is a unique research centre in the world that, on 16 April, has become the world leader of the systems under investigation. While he organizes a municipal conference, he tries to overcome the negative effects of the renewable moratorium legislated by the government.
In economic crises, it is commonly presumed that research can wait and that it suffers budget cuts. Is ISFOC suffering from them?
The research part has not affected us, because we already had the projects, but the moratorium on renewables has greatly affected us. We had demonstration plants already built and waiting to be connected to the network which had not yet entered the quota. These are plants of the latest technology that have been sitting idly for two years, waiting to enter into the feed-in tariff. This is one of the funding sources we expected. ISFOC finances itself through projects and services, but the electricity generated by the demonstration plants is also an important part. We will not have that money anymore.
Is there an alternative?
We can try to increase our services to the maximum, but everything has a limit. We cannot increase services to recover that money overnight. It is practically impossible. That is why we continue to fight for the government to recognize the need for a grant for demonstration plants.