In October 2011, King Juan Carlos and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates, inaugurated in style Gemasolar plant in Fuentes de AndalucÃ_a (Sevilla), in a ceremony attended by over 350 guests, including several members of the royal family of Abu Dhabi and ministers of the governments of both countries. Was still a time of wine and roses for renewables. Only two and a half years later, the cuts in the compensation of thermal energy facilities have caused the emirate of Abu Dhabi lead the Kingdom of Spain to court.
Claims against Spain by cuts to renewable and are spreading across the geography of global investment. The latest firm to make the move was the signing Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, the sovereign fund or investment company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Masdar Solar & Wind Coöperatief U. A., group company domiciled in the Netherlands, has filed a request for arbitration before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an institution of the World Bank in Washington on Tuesday. The law firm Allen & Overy represents the plaintiff.
Masdar Solar in Spain is a partner in the firm Sener Torresol, dedicated to the generation of thermal energy. It has said plant Gemasolar, applying technology central tower receiver and molten salt heat storage, with a rated capacity of 19.9 MW, which the company can supply electricity to a population of 27,500 households. Also, has also Torresol Valle 1 and Valle 2, two adjacent plots power plants by technology cilindropara - parabolic collectors, located in San Jose del Valle (Cádiz). The total investment in these three plants is about 1,000 million.
Cuts to the remuneration of renewable energy made ​​by the current government and the previous one have led foreign investors to sue Spain claiming legal uncertainty and expropriation.
Presented by Masdar is the fifth unresolved demand brought against Spain before the ICSID arbitration. Four of these five claims are due to cuts to renewable energy and have urged in recent months. offense before the ICSID began with demands Antin and RREEF, two funds linked to Deutsche Bank and BNP. They subsequently joined the British Eiser Infrastructure fund and now Masdar. With this, Spain has become one of the countries with the largest number of open cases at ICSID, behind Venezuela, Argentina, Egypt, Hungary and Peru, and on par with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Spain has also received demands for pay cuts to renewable energy before other tribunals. In most cases, the violation of the treaty of the Energy Charter is alleged.
Tags: Abu, claim, cuts, Dhabi, emirate, renewable, Spain