Spain awards €165 million for 2 GW pumped storage projects

Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), has awarded €165 million in funding to seven innovative pumped storage projects under the second call of the BORALMAC program.

The selected projects will add 2.071 GW of installed generation capacity and 21.091 GWh of storage capacity across Andalusia, Asturias, Aragon, Extremadura, Catalonia, and Galicia. The government increased the original €90 million budget by €75 million due to strong demand for funding.

Six of the seven projects involve new reversible hydropower plants, while the remaining project in Extremadura will use existing hydropower infrastructure to increase storage capacity through pumped hydro.

The funding follows the first BORALMAC call, which awarded €100 million to four projects with a combined storage capacity of slightly more than 2 GWh.

IDAE evaluated projects based on economic viability, technical readiness, and their contribution to the energy transition. Criteria included the ability to integrate variable renewable generation, strengthen grid resilience, support regions affected by demographic challenges or just transition processes, contribute to European and domestic supply chains, and deliver technological innovation.

IDAE said it may provide advance payments for the awarded funding, subject to guarantees, to support project financing during development.

From pv magazine España