Renewable energy experts warn a brewing crisis as the pace of new facility installations slows. A legal deadline exists for hundreds of green projects to be up and running by mid-2025, or they risk losing their grid-connection permits.
Industry groups say most projects will fall short of this temporary deadline because bottlenecks will emerge as the whole sector races to secure suppliers and push a flood of new builds forward in a compressed window. As a result, associations estimate a need for roughly two more years to keep the pipeline from collapsing.
Authorities have already granted two extensions to help the permit process run its course, though the process typically spans about five years. In all, 15 months of support were approved to meet key milestones, including nine months for an environmental impact statement and an additional six months for a construction permit. The government later reviewed these extensions due to pandemic-related pressures and backlogs in public administrations, particularly among regional authorities, in handling the volume of applications.
With mounting pressure from the industry to secure a fresh moratorium on building new renewables, the current government has chosen a cautious path: extend timelines selectively while resisting broad new extensions for now, and only considering them in the future.
“Public administrations should not be a bottleneck” in renewable development, said Teresa Ribera, Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, at the UNEF forum, the leading solar energy employers’ association. She stressed that administrative delays are not the sole or even the primary obstacle for solar projects, though they remain a factor.
Is it urgent or not?
The government approved the latest extension last June, part of a broader macro decree passed before the 23J elections. The renewable sector argued that this grant provides only six more months to secure construction permits in most cases, and that the earlier extension did not yield the expected benefits. Projects scheduled to become operational by July 2025 face a narrow window.
The Ecological Transition Ministry later argued that extending deadlines to mid-2025 could not be justified as an urgent measure in a royal decree. With the government in office and investment returns in sight, administrative capacity is tight, limiting maneuver room to introduce new legislation that would justify a royal decree extension.
“Some projects likely need more time,” Ribera conceded, but did not commit to a sweeping general extension. The minister noted that delays stem not only from bureaucratic congestion, but also from the need for local community support where projects are located. Companies that can demonstrate social license—gaining acceptance from regions and neighbors—are better positioned to move forward.
Two more years of grace
UNEF, the photovoltaics employers’ group, has publicly requested a further two-year extension for projects in the pipeline, extending many installations from 2025 to mid-2027 to avoid bottlenecks in suppliers, equipment, and transport.
Wind industry players are evaluating options with their partners, including a possible blanket extension of two or more years for all projects or a quota-based approach tied to when projects are ready to sign off. The aim is to ensure operations begin in 2025, 2026, 2027, and beyond.
Beyond supply chain pressures, doubts about meeting deadlines complicate securing financing from banks. Smaller energy firms without deep coffers face greater risk of being unable to fund their share of investments.
Not all renewable firms favor extending deadlines. Some say flexibility was justified by the pandemic and administrative resource constraints, but that the 2025 target should not be treated as a multi-year open-ended window. They warn that many firms will abandon projects if the five-year horizon becomes unmanageable.
Other voices point out that many well-planned projects are already under construction, while others face delays due to suboptimal designs or new requirements that threaten to derail timelines. Any extensions should help preserve access to the electricity grid rather than create more inertia.
The coming green flood
Last January, projects totaling 58,000 MW received the mandatory environmental impact review to advance. After this step, most projects under construction obtained preliminary permission from the central government or regional authorities before April, and then needed an administrative construction permit before July, now extended to January.
About 15,000 MW had already secured the final permit before the extension, while the remaining 43,000 MW faced setbacks due to bureaucratic delays and the need for design changes. An additional 10,000 MW may still benefit from a six-month extension. In total, some 68,000 MW of construction capacity are expected to come online in the coming years.
In June, the government began updating the national energy plan for 2030, signaling more ambitious deployment of clean energy and emission reductions. The draft targets call for substantially more renewables, including wind, solar, green hydrogen, and storage. To meet these goals, it is crucial to avoid a collapse of the 68,000 MW currently under construction, ensuring a stable path to increased renewable capacity.