Spanish autonomous community to temporarily suspend battery licenses on undeveloped land

The Council of Government of the Principality of the Asturias on Monday agreed to temporarily suspend battery energy storage system (BESS) licenses on undeveloped land, following a plan announced in August 2024.

Guidelines will now be drafted stipulating how batteries can be planned on such sites with the suspension in place until the new regulation takes effect. The move has been described as a “disguised moratorium” on storage.

The Council of Government said its Land Use Planning Department will draft the guidelines regarding future BESS deployment on undeveloped land and its Science Department will draw up the objectives of the policy and a strategic environmental assessment of the expected impact of the new regulation.

BESS constructed for self-consumption, and with a scale of less than 3 MW, will be excepted from the suspension. Exemptions also apply to mining, industrial, and energy-activity sites which cannot be developed for urban use and to land which has been abandoned or is degraded and has not been restored to use.

The new BESS regulation will inform the Asturian regional departments responsible for the urban planning and environmental permitting of BESS and city councils assessing applications for such sites.

“With this agreement, the principality seeks to respond to the significant increase in requests for the implementation of this type of energy storage equipment, which has generated social concern due to the lack of specific urban planning regulations,” said the Council of Government.

When the regulation was announced, Asturias had 1.22 GW of batteries with approved grid connections and a further 373 MW in the pipeline.

A public comment period will be held before the new BESS regulation is drafted, to “ensure transparency and citizen participation to reconcile the energy transition with the protection of the territory and the population’s quality of life,” stated the Council of Government.

A recent application by Rolwind for a 200 MW/885 MWh BESS in Tarifa was opposed by environmental group Agaden, which said, “this type of battery can affect the environment” and offered “a risk of spillage and contamination, risk of fire and explosion, impact on biodiversity, and generation of hazardous waste.”

From pv magazine España.