The Spanish solar association Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF) has released new figures on storage deployment in the self-consumption segment. Installations of batteries for self-consumption increased by 65 percent last year, with 540 MWh of new capacity coming online compared with 327 MWh in 2024. Growth was particularly strong in the residential segment, where storage deployment rose by 99 percent according to UNEF. Last year, sixty-one percent of new residential self-consumption installations already included a battery, with interest in storage also growing in the commercial and industrial segment.
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José Donoso, Director General of UNEF, sees the development as an important step towards greater resilience and flexibility in the electricity system. "Technological progress and the significant reduction in battery costs in recent years already allow for the widespread use of batteries in self-consumption installations," he says. By combining batteries with photovoltaics, consumers can make the most of Spain's abundant solar resource. To ensure the benefits reach consumers broadly, UNEF is calling for swift adoption of the announced Royal Decree on self-consumption and distributed storage.
UNEF
Regulatory catch-up
The association is specifically calling for recognition of the option to share surpluses, as well as legal recognition of distributed storage. It also argues that the variable energy component of electricity bills should carry greater weight in order to encourage savings and efficiency.
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UNEF is also calling for simpler permitting procedures, proposing that installations feeding less than 15 kW into the grid, rather than measuring by installed capacity, should be exempt from grid access and connection permits. The simplified procedure should apply to all projects up to 500 kW of access capacity. (nhp)
