Fifty megawatts. That is all the power in batteries that Spain managed to connect to its electrical network in the last three full years from 2023 to 2025. However, in an unprecedented twist of the script, only in the 31 days of January 2026 did the sector has plugged in more than 57 megawatts.
It’s not an anecdote, it’s the starting signal. After years of administrative paralysis and debates about how to manage the flood of green energy, the energy storage sector in Spain has begun to wake up. With the aim of reaching 22.5 GW of storage capacity in 2030 marked by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the country faces what is probably the largest structural transformation of its electrical system in decades.
Nature’s warning. The Spanish electrical system has just gone through a monumental stress test. As we have been documenting in Xataka during the last weeksthe concatenation of Atlantic storms and historic wind production pushed water reserves to record levels and sank the wholesale price for dozens of hours, even into negative territory. The oversupply was such that nuclear plants like Trillo They stopped operating when they were not married in the market.
Beyond the meteorological anecdote, the episode exposed a structural failure: Spain has the capacity to generate enormous quantities of clean and cheap electricity, but it lacks enough “electronic reservoirs” to move that energy over time. The result is renewable waste, zero prices and a system forced to absorb surpluses at any cost. The transition no longer depends only on installing more green megawatts. It depends on knowing how to manage them.
The numbers reveal the magnitude of the moment. At the end of January, Spain had less than 100 MW of operational batteries, but more than 11,600 MW with access permission granted and almost 14,000 MW in processing, according to the latest APPA Renovables report. More than 25,000 MW on the exit ramp. The technology and investors are ready. The only obstacle left to overcome is a regulatory framework that seems stuck in the past.
The clash against the 20th century. The barrier is not technical, but bureaucratic. José Carlos Díaz Lacaci, CEO of SotySolar, explains it clearly in statements to Xataka: “The problem is not technical/technological, it is that a regulation from the 20th century continues to be applied that understands the battery as a final consumer, when in reality it is an asset of system flexibility.”
Currently, the regulations treat the charging of a giant battery as if it were the consumption of a factory. “Or what is the same: we are applying rules of a one-way highway when what is needed is bidirectionality on that road and regulation by traffic lights,” illustrates the SotySolar spokesperson.
The frustration in the sector is palpable. A battery does not “consume” electricity in the classic sense: it moves it over time to return it when the system needs it. However, you are required to have firm demand access as if you were an end user. As long as there is no specific regulatory figure for storage – with its own framework of tolls, access and remuneration – the deployment will continue to advance, but without the industrial scale required by the PNIEC.
The paradox is that the market already behaves as if that figure existed. Operational data shows that the batteries charge during hours of solar surplus and discharge during peak demand naturally. “The regulator knows perfectly well what the graphs say,” says Díaz Lacaci. “It is not a question of whether it works, but of giving it legal certainty.”
Two ways to a big stack. To absorb this renewable avalanche, Spain has to activate its two large storage lungs. On the one hand, large-scale batteries (BESS) offer a response in milliseconds and allow the grid to be stabilized with a precision that no other technology matches. And the queue of projects is historic. According to APPA dataIn addition to the more than 25,000 MW in permits and processing, there are 92,620 MW of demand access requests in the transmission network, much of them linked to storage facilities. It is an unmistakable sign of investment appetite.
The international context reinforces the thesis. Spain It is the second country in the world in battery storage projects for the electrical grid, only behind the United States, with 16,000 MW planned until 2030 and an estimated volume of 2,000 million euros in development. However, the current business model remains fragile. Without a capacity market that rewards the constant availability of these assets – and not just energy sold punctually – the viability of large-scale financing is complicated, leaving many of these projects waiting for a clear framework.
The muscle of hydraulic pumping. On the other hand, the other lung is hydraulic pumping. Reversible reservoirs act as the country’s heavy battery, Spain has around 6 GW of installed capacity and the PNIEC plans to reach around 10 GW of seasonal storage in 2030.
In times of overproduction and plunging prices, these plants use cheap electricity to lift water to a higher reservoir and store it as potential energy. In January 2026 alone, pumping consumption exceeded 771,400 MWh in the national system, according to data from Red Eléctrica. However, its expansion is not guaranteed either. As Antonio Hernández, partner at EY, explains, in statements collected by Expansionachieving the objectives will require approving capacity markets adapted to pumping, reducing the tax burden and establishing hydraulic concessions with sufficient horizons to recover the investment.
The risk of capital flight. Time plays against us. Today, the business model for batteries in Spain is complex. They live on “highly specialized niches” in adjustment services, a scheme that is “profitable as artisanal projects”, but which is “unsustainable for the industrialization of storage”, warns the CEO of SotySolar.
This regulatory limbo has a real cost. “Regulatory uncertainty always penalizes, and capital, indeed, is very sensitive to that factor,” warns Díaz Lacaci. The industry is aware that international funds are already freezing projects on the peninsula to take them to Italy, the United Kingdom or Germany, prioritizing “markets where the regulatory fit for storage is more defined.”
The oil of the 21st century. Spain is looking into an abyss of opportunity. If the bureaucracy is not unclogged, we are heading towards an absurd scenario: having to throw clean energy in the trash while investors flee. We would be losing “the greatest country opportunity that Spain has had to be the new producer of ‘clean oil’, which is the sun.”
However, the tools to lead are there. The natural resource is exceptional and, as José Carlos Díaz Lacaci claims, “we have the business fabric, the experience and the desire to develop the Plan and reach those 19 GW.” The silent rollout of batteries this January shows that the sector is ready. Now, “we just need vision, execution of a favorable regulatory framework and determination to comply with it.”
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