The monthly report published by APPA Renovables , corresponding to December 2025, confirms a trend that is beginning to consolidate in the Spanish energy system: storage is no longer a future promise, but an active and growing reality .
During that month, 37371.93 MW were registered in requests for grid access for storage facilities , positioning itself as the largest volume among all categories of new connection demands.
These requests far exceed other modalities such as grid-connected self-consumption with almost 25.6 GW and conventional consumption with 23.34 GW, reflecting the acceleration of the deployment of storage systems , both independent and hybridized with renewable generation.
In total, the set of demand requests reached 90.42 GW in December , spread across 122 requests.
This surge responds to the need to integrate increasing volumes of renewable energy into an increasingly electrified system.
In December alone, renewables generated 11,359 GWh , which is equivalent to 48.9% of the Spanish electricity mix .
Solar photovoltaics, however, continues to face challenges: its point-index stood at 0.83 , with an average capture price of 64.53/MWh , while wind power achieved a point-index of 0.90 with 68.89/MWh.
This context of high renewable generation has also brought with it technical restrictions , evidenced in the adjustment services.
During December, 5,188 GWh of renewable energy were recorded as going down , compared to just 42.2 GWh of energy going up.
In real time, the figures were also compelling: 1,822 GWh of renewable energy "down" and only 59.8 GWh "up" , confirming the imbalance in the operation and the urgency of tools such as storage.
In this context, the electricity market recorded an average daily price of 58.29/MWh , with the lowest values at 14:00 and peaks of 105.25/MWh at 20:00 .
These price fluctuations present an opportunity for storage systems, which enable energy arbitrage and grid stabilization.
On the other hand, the network access system remains under strain.
As of December 2025, there are 16.54 GW of access capacity reserved for tenders and nodes of special interest , distributed across 386 nodes throughout the country .
Communities such as Andalusia, Castile and León and Catalonia concentrate the largest volumes, both for generation and storage.
Meanwhile, national demand reached 22,582 GWh in December, an increase of 4.2% compared to the same month in 2024 , which reinforces the need for backup infrastructure that can cover variations in supply.
In line with this trend, Red Eléctrica de España is also moving forward with the development of specific demand access tenders , which will allow for the channeling of new installations in strategic areas of the grid. As highlighted in a recent analysis by Energía Estratégica , 80 demand nodes have been identified in 14 autonomous communities, with a particular concentration in regions such as Andalusia, Castile and León, and Aragon .
This type of competition will allow for the organization and optimization of the deployment of storage and flexible consumption projects , facilitating the use of existing infrastructure and promoting territorial balance in access.
As the system becomes more dependent on intermittent sources, the role of storage becomes unavoidable.
The APPA Renovables report makes it clear that this technology already occupies a central place in the country's energy planning .
If the application figures materialize, Spain will have tens of GW of additional storage capacity in the coming years, a transformation that will have a major impact on the flexibility, stability and efficiency of its energy mix.
It is worth remembering that these topics will be at the center of the debate during the Future Energy Summit Iberia , which will be held on February 12 in Madrid .
The event will bring together representatives from IDAE, leaders of energy communities and CEOs from the sector , who will analyze the progress of storage, the management of access nodes and the new regulatory scenario to accelerate the energy transition in Spain.