The Spanish government plans to lower its installed capacity targets for solar and offshore wind power until 2020 due to a decline in electricity demand, according to a draft released by the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy Tuesday, or IDAE.

The government, however, maintains plans to produce more than 20% of its energy from renewable sources.

According to the Renewable Energy Plan draft, Spain expects installed capacity of 13,446 megawatts of solar power by 2020, down 14% from previous projections.

The plan, which needs to be submitted to the European Commission before June 30, also cut targets for offshore wind power to an installed capacity of 3,000 MW, down from 5,000 MW previously.

The government maintains a target to produce 35,000 MW from onshore wind parks.

The change in targets comes as Spain 's government in coming weeks is expected to announce new rules that likely will cut subsidies for renewable energy.

"The fall in demand has forced us to rethink the targets we can reach in the next decade, above all in less mature technologies such as solar or offshore wind power," Jaume Margarit, IDAE's director for renewable energy told EFE Dow Jones on the sidelines of a wind power conference.

IDAE is a unit of Spain 's industry ministry.

Demand for electricity fell 4.6% last year in Spain as a consequence of the economic downturn.

The cut in the target for solar energy also comes as the government has raised its estimates for the expected duration of generation of such plants, Antonio Hernandez, general director for energy at the Industry Ministry said.

"Solar plants are producing during more hours than we had foreseen, so that we can install less capacity without compromising our generation targets," he said, also Tuesday. Hernandez said the government maintains its plan to produce 22.7% of primary energy from renewable sources by 2020, but lowers its target for electricity production from renewable power to 40% of demand, from 42.3% previously targeted. Still, "the targets in the plan of the Spanish government are in line with previous estimates and remain very ambitious," Antonio Cruz, analyst at Banesto, said in a note.

The Spanish targets are part of a European Union commitment to produce at least 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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