Spanish solar PV association Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF) says Spain's self-consumption solar PV capacity additions in 2022 grew 108% annually to 2.507 GW taking the segment's aggregate to over 5.25 GW till the end of last year, spurred by high electricity prices and government funding.
According to the association, majority of this new power with 47% share was installed in the industrial sector, followed by 32% in residential, 20% in commercial and 1% in isolated self-consumption categories. Installations in the industrial sector increased from 41% in 2021 to 47% in 2022.
"The high prices of electricity motivated by the uncertainty caused after the invasion of Ukraine, as well as the promotion of the aid contemplated within the Government Recovery Funds have caused self-consumption to continue breaking records in our country," explained General Director of UNEF, José Donoso. "In addition, the first collective self-consumption projects are beginning to come into operation, a trend that will increase and further boost the sector."
Donoso sees the trend growing only further as the government brings down administrative barriers and eliminates building permits in autonomous communities, barring Basque as of now.
In 2019, the solar self-consumption segment installed 459 MW, growing it to 596 MW annual capacity in 2020, and 1.2 GW in 2021.
Spain sees its self-consumption segment having potential to install a total of between 9 GW to 14 GW by 2030 under its Roadmap of Self-Consumption, approved in December 2021.
According to SolarPower Europe (SPE), Spain was the 2nd largest solar market in the European Union (EU) after Germany as it installed 7.5 GW in 2022 with an aggregate capacity of 26.4 GW. Analysts forecast Spain to install another 51.2 GW between 2023 and 2026, taking its cumulative installed capacity to 77.7 GW (see European Union To Exit 2022 With Over 41 GW Solar Installed).