Spain's Asturias Preliminarily Approves Guidelines for Battery Energy Storage Facilities Exceeding 3 MW

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Asturias Urban and Territorial Planning Commission (Cuota) in Spain has preliminarily approved the "Sectoral Guidelines for Battery Energy Storage Facilities on Non-Urbanizable Land," providing unified regulations for the siting and approval of local battery energy storage projects. The document was approved by a "vast majority" at the Cuota meeting.

Previously, due to a significant increase in permit applications for such facilities and the lack of specific urban planning regulations under current law, which raised public concerns, the Asturias government temporarily suspended the issuance of permits for such facilities on August 25. Ignacio Ruiz Latierro, Director General of Territorial Planning, stated that these guidelines represent a "major step forward," aiming to strike a balance between the need for energy storage to ensure grid stability and the protection of citizen safety. He revealed that the preliminary document has received more than 170 access and connection applications, of which over 50 are already being processed.

The proposal establishes common standards for standalone facilities with an installed capacity exceeding 3 megawatts, prioritizing locations on industrial, mining, energy-related, or degraded land, as well as sites near grid connection nodes. Specially protected land is excluded. Projects must establish a 200-meter territorial safety zone; the minimum distance to legally occupied dwellings outside rural core areas is 50 meters, which may be further extended if required by the results of a mandatory risk analysis.

Regarding safety measures, the document includes requirements such as retention basins and a 10-meter firebreak strip. The 200-meter territorial safety zone may only be reduced on an exceptional basis for reasons of special public interest, provided that no alternative exists and that no incompatible impact on the rural landscape or traditional uses is demonstrated.

Following its preliminary approval, the guidelines will enter a two-month public consultation period, after which an environmental assessment will be conducted, and the final text will be submitted to the Governing Council of Asturias (Consejo de Gobierno) for approval by decree. Meanwhile, Cuota has decided to extend the permit suspension for standalone facilities exceeding 3 MW on non-urbanizable land by one year. This measure does not apply to projects located on industrial, mining, or degraded energy land, nor to self-consumption facilities with a capacity below the aforementioned threshold.