Spain's Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has finalised the allocation of USD 706.86 million in subsidies to 173 projects aimed at renewing ageing wind farms and small hydroelectric plants across the country, according to the definitive resolution of the REPOTENCIACIÓN CIRCULAR programme, known as REPOTEN 2.

The awards mark a significant step in the country's effort to modernise its existing renewable energy infrastructure rather than simply expand it with new installations.

Budget More Than Doubled to Meet Demand

The programme, managed by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), an entity attached to MITECO, was initially planned at a lower financial ceiling, but the ministry approved a budget increase of 110 percent over the original allocation.

This translated into an additional USD 369.60 million being added to the pot, reflecting what officials described as elevated demand from project developers for the available grants. The funding is drawn from NextGenEU resources under Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The final resolution covers 81 actions focused on the substitution and modernisation of wind turbines, absorbing approximately 90 percent of the total budget, and 92 actions addressing the technological and environmental renewal of hydroelectric installations of up to 50 megawatts in capacity.

In budgetary terms, the wind component, designated Programme 1, carries an allocation of USD 636.75 million, while the hydroelectric component, Programme 2, accounts for USD 70.11 million.

Power Gains Across Wind and Water

The beneficiary projects are expected to add 2,433 megawatts of wind power capacity and 1,091 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity to the national grid. Taken together, MITECO says these renovations will deliver an additional generation capacity of 3.5 gigawatts. Total investment mobilised across all selected projects is expected to approach 3USD 4.33 billion.

A notable feature of the programme's outcomes is the degree of hybridisation with storage technology. More than half of the selected projects, specifically 53 percent, will incorporate hybrid storage systems, adding a combined 2 gigawatt-hours of new storage capacity to the national electricity system. MITECO highlighted this as a mechanism for better utilising the energy generated by the repowered installations.

Wind Turbines: Fewer Machines, Greater Output

The 81 wind repowering projects selected under REPOTEN 2 will replace close to 3,000 older turbines, which have an average unit capacity of 790 kilowatts, with fewer than 500 new turbines carrying an average unit capacity of 5 megawatts.

The ministry noted that this approach reduces both the landscape impact and the land footprint of wind installations by consolidating a large number of small, ageing machines into a smaller number of far more powerful units.

Beyond raw capacity improvements, MITECO pointed to an additional technical benefit: the new installations will have the capability to operate in so-called "grid forming" mode, which allows them to function as a stable voltage source capable of operating autonomously.

Officials described this as a reinforcement of the stability of the Spanish electricity system as a whole. The programme will also enable the doubling of renewable generation at sites that already host operational wind turbines.

Hydroelectric Renewal Reaches Small Plants

The 92 hydroelectric projects funded under the programme target facilities of up to 50 megawatts in capacity and focus on both technological and environmental renewal. This strand of the programme is comparatively smaller in budgetary terms, receiving USD 70.11 million of the total envelope, but covers more individual projects than the wind component.

The ministry presented the hydroelectric strand as an opportunity to bring older small-scale plants up to current technical standards while also addressing their environmental footprint.

Geographic Distribution

The 173 selected projects are distributed across nearly all of Spain's autonomous communities, with the only notable absence being the Balearic Islands. Galicia leads the national count with 40 projects, comprising 24 wind repowering schemes and 16 hydroelectric renewals.

Castilla y León follows with 32 projects, split between 13 wind and 19 hydroelectric. Castilla-La Mancha accounts for 19 projects, Andalucía for 17, and Aragón for 15. The ministry described the distribution as broadly homogeneous across the national territory.

Competitive Selection and Execution Deadlines

The call was conducted under a competitive concurrence regime, meaning that multiple criteria were weighted against one another in determining which projects received funding.

These criteria included the reduction of the subsidy amount requested by applicants, administrative viability, the degree of innovation in supporting the electricity system, location within Just Transition and Demographic Challenge zones, and resilience criteria relating to the strengthening of national and European supply chains.

Projects receiving funding under REPOTEN 2 are required to be fully executed before 30 June 2030, with a possible extension to 31 December 2030. The extended deadline is established in a ministerial order from MITECO that adapts the regulatory framework for several incentive programmes under the recovery plan in accordance with criteria set by the European Commission's aid scheme.

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