The Vice President of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, today announced the expansion of NextGenEU funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) to €512 million for wind and hydroelectric repowering (REPOTEN 2), as can be seen here . High demand from the sector has led to a 75% increase over the initial budget of €292 million.
This aid program, managed by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), incentivizes investments to replace old wind turbines with state-of-the-art models and for the technological and environmental modernization of hydroelectric facilities up to 50 MW. In this regard, the Vice President stated that “we are going to publish the second round of aid for repowering wind and hydroelectric facilities; we are going to replace equipment that has reached the end of its useful life with more efficient, more sustainable equipment using more advanced technologies.”
Aagesen also explained that, based on this new budget and the averages of the applications submitted, support is estimated for over 2,000 MW of wind farm repowering. This will be complemented by another 900 MW of hydroelectric generation capacity and approximately 1,500 MWh of hybrid storage, which together will mobilize an investment exceeding €3 billion.
CONTINUITY IN SUPPORT FOR REPOWERING
The new call for the REPOTEN 2 program seeks to provide greater energy efficiency and less environmental impact to the Spanish wind farm and also modernize a significant number of hydroelectric power plants, continuing the technological adaptation in these areas promoted by the first edition, in which 186 million were awarded.
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In addition to a larger budget, this call for aid incorporates significant new features: it relaxes the conditions to encourage eligible actions to include hybrid storage, both in wind power repowering projects and in those for technological and environmental improvement of hydroelectric facilities and, in the latter, it raises the power of the plants eligible to receive aid from 10 MW to 50 MW.
What does the sector think?
The Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE) stated that the €220 million expansion of the new PRTR-REPOTEN 2 call for proposals confirms the sector's interest in accelerating the renewal of Spain's wind farms and strengthens the country's industrial and energy competitiveness.
"To fully capitalize on this momentum, it will be essential to continue advancing agile, predictable regulatory frameworks with legal certainty that allow for accelerating investments and providing stability to renewable development," they stated via social media.
"And, without a doubt, a structural roadmap for 2026-2030 and a regulatory framework for processing repowering projects in accordance with European regulations are necessary. In practice, these projects must follow procedures equivalent to—or even more complex than—those for a new wind farm," they added.