Spain | The grid’s moment

Summary

While global investment in renewables has doubled over the past decade, investment in power grids has increased by only 20%. In Spain, distribution grid congestion and renewable energy curtailment are consistent with a pattern of underinvestment.

Key points

• Key points:
• In 2024, Spain curtailed 1.4% of its renewable electricity production, as 88% of its distribution grid nodes were saturated, with less than 1 MW of firm available capacity.
• Globally, bottlenecks are the result of fragmented planning, lengthy permitting processes, and regulations designed more to minimize the risk of stranded assets than to facilitate expansion.
• The key question is which risk is greater: overinvesting and creating stranded assets, or underinvesting and entrenching bottlenecks that delay the energy transition and forgo industrial opportunities.
• The debate in Spain has its own nuances, particularly around raising the regulatory cap on investment. But the dilemma is the same—and so is the backdrop of new electrification-driven demand, with grid availability increasingly becoming a competitiveness factor.

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