Spain is preparing a new round of support for the manufacture of renewable technologies , after having allocated €458 million to 73 projects in the first two calls of the RENOVAL program.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has opened the preliminary public consultation on the regulatory framework for a new aid scheme that will seek to strengthen the industrial value chain of net zero emission technologies.
The program will include projects related to batteries, electrical grids, wind energy, renewable hydrogen, solar photovoltaics and heat pumps , among other segments considered strategic for the energy transition.
The new initiative will be financed with resources from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF 2021-2027) and will be managed by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), through a competitive bidding process.
The objective is to expand the manufacturing capacity of equipment and components within Spain, but also to strengthen the processing of essential raw materials and reduce dependence on third-party markets in certain links of the chain.
The industrial strategy builds on an already developed foundation. According to MITECO, Spain can currently manufacture more than 60% of the components needed for photovoltaic installations and practically 100% of those associated with wind turbines .
Even so, the Ministry itself acknowledges that there are still components in which both Spain and Europe maintain a high exposure to external suppliers.
This highlights one of the main arguments of the new call for proposals: to accompany the renewable energy rollout with sufficient industrial capacity so that a greater part of the added value remains within the country.
The program will be aligned with the objectives of the European Commission's Clean Industry Pact and with the Strategic Technologies Platform for Europe (STEP), which seeks to strengthen industrial capabilities considered critical to the bloc's competitiveness and energy security.
A third stage after €458 million awarded
The new scheme will pick up where RENOVAL left off, whose two editions were financed with NextGenEU funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Between the two calls, MITECO allocated €458 million to 73 projects focused on the production of goods and components linked to the energy transition.
The intention now is to maintain that momentum, but under a new source of European funding and with a broad spectrum of eligible technologies.
The focus will not be solely on large end-user equipment. Initiatives related to components, industrial processes, and the transformation of raw materials needed to manufacture clean technologies will also be included.
Spain is thus seeking to simultaneously strengthen three fronts: energy security, industrial competitiveness and decarbonization .
The issue gains relevance in a context where the growth in demand for batteries, networks, solar and wind equipment is making the location of factories an increasingly strategic variable.
The public consultation will be open until September 25 , during which time companies and interested parties can submit comments on the terms before the final configuration of the program is defined.
For now, MITECO has not detailed the financial allocation for this new round.