Spain’s Solar Sector Hits a Generation Milestone — and a Pricing Wall

Spain added 10.1 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2025, with ground-mounted installations accounting for nearly 9 GW — a 31 percent year-on-year increase. The expansion pushed solar’s share of national electricity output to almost 23 percent, making it the country’s leading generation source.

Yet scale is proving a double-edged sword. The average price captured by solar generators fell from €42.28 to €36.39 per megawatt-hour compared with the prior year, as peak midday output depresses the very market prices that projects rely on for revenue. Hours when electricity traded at zero or below reached 797 in 2025 — a threshold already matched again by mid-2026.

Industry association UNEF argues that accelerating electrification of end-use sectors is the primary fix. Spain already has 71.5 GW of new grid-connection demand either approved or incorporated into network planning through 2030, spanning data centres, industrial facilities, green hydrogen production and electric mobility.

Battery storage is gaining ground in parallel. Behind-the-meter installations grew 65 percent last year to 540 MWh, lifting cumulative capacity to 2,745 MWh. At the utility scale, 261 MW is currently operational while an additional 33 GW holds the permits needed to proceed.

Despite compressed margins, solar’s broader economic contribution remains sizeable. The sector added €9.84 billion to GDP, supported nearly 135,000 jobs and generated €3.21 billion in export revenue in 2025, according to UNEF’s annual report.

Source: PV Magazine