Spain is moving ahead with the construction of a major new renewable facility. In recent years, a steady and accelerating pace of growth has repeatedly shown records of expansion through new installations and increased electricity production from green energy. Yet in the last months, a key metric for renewable deployment and the procedures behind it has shown a sharp decline.
Spanish Electricity Network (REE) serves as the system operator and manages the high-voltage grid. Each month, it releases data on wind and photovoltaic power plants, detailing who has grid access, what capacity is connected, and which projects are in various stages of approval. The information covers facilities that already have permission and are actively connected, those with permission but not yet in service, and projects for which permission has been requested but a final decision is still pending.
After years of rising figures, the number of facilities currently operational has fallen in recent weeks. While the system continued to run reliably, this downturn introduced uncertainty for some energy companies and industry groups. The most recent update from REE shows that wind and photovoltaic plants now operate with about 42,500 megawatts (MW) of grid connection capacity, down from a prior level that exceeded 49,000 MW. (Source: REE)
The expansion of renewable energy in Spain has not halted, nor have operating plants been shut down en masse. Instead, there has been a change in accounting that temporarily suppresses this data and suggests that a new surge may be on the horizon. The sector is seeing a trend toward hybridization of green plants.
Expansion of hybrid plants
Hybridization refers to combining multiple energy sources within the same installation to maximize the use of land and existing grid connections. The approach that will likely become most common involves placing solar panels between wind turbines within wind farms, though any technology can be paired with others. Storage, too, can be integrated with renewable generation to smooth supply.
Red Eléctrica decided to separate data for all facilities pursuing hybridization from the monthly statistics. When an installation becomes hybridized, the focus is no longer exclusively wind or solar, and these projects no longer appear in the traditional datasets. The organization is working to improve published information and soon will include these new facility types in a dedicated section.
Early data on plant hybridization suggests this method could play a significant role in the national green energy landscape. Hybridization requests total about 6,800 MW of access capacity, as reported by the Prensa Ibérica group to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA through official sources. These 6,800 MW have disappeared from standard statistics for now but are expected to reappear later, underscoring the renewable sector’s interest in leveraging existing installations for greater impact.
Desired network access
Access points to the electrical grid have become highly sought after by energy companies. In several regions, grid saturation and the rapid rise of renewables have made these connection points scarce and hotly contested assets, at times prompting speculative moves to resell projects merely to secure grid access. Hybridizing different technologies in a single facility can help make better use of the network and contribute to more stable supply from the same termination point.
Industry leaders such as Iberdrola, Endesa, Nature EDPr, and ACTIAM have joined the hybridization push, unveiling multi‑million plans to build new facilities or to renovate and adapt existing ones across Spain and beyond. In many cases, these projects involve combining wind and solar energy within the same site, with the aim of optimizing emissions, costs, and grid resilience.