en.Wedoany.com Reported - Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has finalized an aid allocation package totaling €612 million to support 173 wind repowering projects and hydropower modernization projects with installed capacity not exceeding 50 MW. The resolution aims to upgrade aging renewable energy facilities, improve energy efficiency, and strengthen the stability of Spain's electricity system.
These funds come from the NextGenEU fund under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), and fall under the second call (Repoten 2) of the "Circular Repowering" program (Repotenciación Circular, Repoten). This batch approves a total of 81 wind turbine replacement and modernization projects, as well as 92 technical and environmental upgrade projects for small hydropower plants.
According to the final resolution published by Spain's Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), the final budget represents a 110% increase over the initial allocation, with an additional €320 million added to meet the high demand of the call. Wind facilities received €551.3 million, accounting for approximately 90% of the aid granted; the hydropower line received €60.7 million. Overall, these projects will drive investments of nearly €3.75 billion.
The selected projects will add 2,433 MW of wind capacity and 1,091 MW of hydropower capacity to the grid, totaling 3.5 GW of new generation capacity. More than half (53%) of the selected projects include hybrid energy storage configurations, which will add over 2 GWh of storage capacity to the national electricity system to improve the utilization of renewable energy generation.
In the wind sector, the repowering plans call for replacing nearly 3,000 old wind turbines with an average unit capacity of 790 kW with fewer than 500 new units averaging 5 MW each. The new facilities must be capable of operating in "grid forming" mode, a function that serves as a stable voltage source and supports autonomous operation.
Projects are distributed across all autonomous communities except the Balearic Islands. Galicia has 40 selected projects, 24 of which are wind farms and 16 are hydropower plants; Castile and León has 32, with 13 wind and 19 hydropower; Castile-La Mancha has 19, with 10 wind and 9 hydropower; Andalusia has 17, with 10 wind and 7 hydropower; and Aragon has 15, with 13 wind and 2 hydropower.
Beneficiary projects must be completed by June 30, 2030, with the possibility of requesting an extension to December 31 of the same year. This timeline aligns with the Miteco ministerial order, which harmonizes the basic rules of multiple PRTR incentive programs with the aid framework defined by the European Commission. This call was adjudicated through a competitive procedure, with evaluation factors including the magnitude of the requested aid reduction, administrative feasibility, the degree of innovation in supporting the electricity system, location in just transition and demographic challenge areas, and resilience criteria related to strengthening national and European value chains.
Equipment replacement also aims to reduce landscape impact and bird collision risk, while consolidating or creating economic activity in rural areas. In the hydropower sector, the modernization of equipment and infrastructure and automation retrofits aim to improve efficiency and integrate environmental measures, including the construction of new fishways to facilitate the migration of aquatic species, guaranteeing minimum ecological flows, maintaining sediment transport, and carrying out territorial integration, specific habitat protection, and restoration actions.
This aid is in addition to the €186 million allocated in the first call of the "Circular Repowering" program. Both calls fall under the framework of the revised 2023-2030 National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the Strategic Project for Renewable Energy, Renewable Hydrogen and Energy Storage (PERTE ERHA), and the CID 507 objective of Investment 9 under Component 31 of the PRTR.
