No one disputes that the development of a renewable energy park is an objective of public interest for the geopolitical (energy independence), economic (investment mobilization) and environmental (decarbonization) areas. The development of renewable energies is also the appropriate instrument to comply with the constitutional principle consisting of "the rational use of all natural resources" (article 45.2 of the Constitution).
The realization of this object is at risk as a result of the massive delay in the granting of authorizations for the construction of energy facilities, which in turn has the undesirable effect of reducing the attractiveness of the Spanish energy market for companies and investment funds. investment.
The causes of this paralysis do not depend on the will of the administrative offices, who are interested in the first steps in the timely resolution of the proceedings. Failure to comply with the deadlines does not exempt them from the obligation to issue an express resolution and places them at risk of the interested parties taking the matter to court. Such causes are, in essence, the following three.
First, the construction of an electrical installation has relevant implications for third parties and in the area of public safety, the environment and urban planning, which explains why they must obtain various authorized titles, many of which are conditional on each other, so that the delay in obtaining one hinders the instruction of the following. Second, the number of projects has increased by hundreds, overloading administrative units with workload. And third, the public law of energy is characterized by its complexity, derived from the fact that, so well on foundations are found in the traditional institutions of administrative law, it is nourished by endless special regulations and is projected on a technical reality in constant evolution.
These pathologies, qua legal-administrative, must be treated using the techniques of their management. The procedural complexity required for the unification and simplification of the mediate lines the collaboration of the different competent public authorities, in particular with respect to the unnecessary holding of successive lines of public information in which only the same discussions are repeated. The work overload in the administrative offices must be tackled with a greater staffing, for which the figures of the service commissions and the administrative contracting of services may arise. In the end, the legal complexity led to the promoters not only acting as interested parties in the procedures, but also as collaborators with the Administration, by submitting briefs and legal opinions aimed at facilitating the discovery of solutions in accordance with the Law. to the very varied problems linked to this type of industrial projects.
The use of renewable energies is not only an objective of general interest, it is also a way of refining administrative law, in its capacity as a sector of the legal system that orders the exercise of authority and the structuring and development of society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gonzalo Rubio Hernandez-Sampelayo
