Spain unleashes 28 GW of renewables in latest permitting round

The Spanish ministry for the ecological transition said on Monday it had granted construction permits for 283 renewable energy projects, enabling a whopping 28,123 MW of new wind, solar photovoltaic and hydroelectric capacity to pop up across Spain within three years.

Developers that took home the permit will build 239 solar farms with a combined capacity of 24,870 MW, 43 wind farms totalling 2,680 MW and one 573-MW pumped-storage hydroelectric plants.

According to the ministry’s conservative estimate, the construction of these renewables will mobilise investments exceeding EUR 17 billion (USD 18.36bn) and create some 300,000 jobs, especially in rural areas.

These permits were granted in line with the Royal Decree-Law 23/2020 from June 2020, which established a series of deadlines for the authorities to issue and project developers to obtain each permit until the last stop in the permitting chain, which is the power plant operation licence. After three extensions, the deadline to obtain the construction permit was set at July 25.

With the permit in hand, developers can begin construction immediately and must commission their power plants within three years, the ministry added.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.080)

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