Recently, in an old wind farm that has been in operation for 22 years in the autonomous region of Galicia, Spain, the last small wind turbine with a single capacity of only 790kW has been dismantled and is about to be replaced by a brand new 5MW high-power unit. With the official announcement of a special subsidy of 612 million euros for the REPOTEN 2 circular renovation plan by the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transformation and Population Challenges, 173 existing new energy upgrade projects across the country have been launched simultaneously, and a comprehensive action to improve existing assets covering wind power and hydropower is being carried out in the Iberian Peninsula.

Doubling the budget to leverage social capital

The special support fund of 612 million euros this time is fully managed by the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Conservation, which directly increases the budget by 110% compared to the initial scale. An additional 320 million euros will be added, fully included in the next generation EU recovery framework, and accurately benchmarked against Spain's national energy and climate plan from 2023 to 2030.

The first round of renovation plan has completed a funding allocation of 186 million euros, and the two rounds of policy relay have formed a continuous driving force for stock upgrading. The subsidy allocation this time is tilted towards the wind power sector, with 90% of the funds invested in 81 wind power renovation projects, and the remaining 60.7 million euros specifically used for the modernization of 92 small and medium-sized hydropower stations with a capacity of 50MW or less, accurately filling the industry's pain points of low energy efficiency and prominent ecological shortcomings in small and micro hydropower. According to official estimates, this fiscal fund will leverage nearly 3.75 billion euros of total social investment, activating the capital vitality of the entire stock new energy market with a small proportion of public investment.

Dual track upgrade unleashes multiple values

After the completion of all projects, Spain will add 3.5GW of clean power installed capacity, of which wind power renovation will contribute an increase of 2433MW, and old hydropower renovation will contribute an increase of 1091MW. 53% of the selected projects are synchronously equipped with hybrid energy storage systems, adding over 2GWh of energy storage capacity to the power grid and significantly improving the regional new energy consumption and peak shaving capabilities.

The hydropower sector is synchronously promoting intelligent transformation and ecological restoration. While updating power generation equipment and installing intelligent operation and maintenance systems to improve power generation efficiency, it is also supporting the construction of fishways, optimizing ecological flow management, and restoring river habitats, completely reversing the negative impact of old hydropower on the ecological system of the watershed. The wind power sector has replaced nearly 3000 old small wind turbines with less than 500 new 5MW wind turbines, significantly reducing land occupation and bird activity interference while improving power generation efficiency, achieving the goal of producing more clean electricity with fewer resources. Keywords: new energy projects, clean energy

This upgrade project covers the vast majority of autonomous regions in Spain, with only the Balearic Islands remaining undeveloped, forming a nationwide optimized pattern. All approved projects must be completed before June 30, 2030, and may be postponed until the end of the year in special circumstances. This stock upgrade action, which does not rely on large-scale new land acquisition, is continuously consolidating the underlying foundation of Spain's energy transformation in a lower cost and more eco-friendly way, providing a replicable reference sample for the efficient development of new energy stock assets in southern European countries.Editor/Cheng Liting