Spain’s cumulative solar self-consumption capacity reached 9.3 GW in 2025, according to data released by the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF).
The country added 1,139 MW of new self-consumption capacity during the year, representing a 3.7% slowdown compared with 2024. UNEF said the deceleration signals a phase of market stabilization following several years of rapid expansion.
The residential segment contributed 229 MW across 36,330 new installations, marking a year-on-year decline of 17%. UNEF attributed the contraction to the phase-out of tax incentives linked to energy-efficient home renovations, as well as lower compensation for surplus electricity exported to the grid under deregulated market contracts.
According to UNEF, falling surplus compensation prices are reducing the attractiveness of oversized systems designed primarily for grid injection. Demand is therefore shifting toward installations optimized for instantaneous self-consumption. The association is calling for revisions to the simplified regulated compensation mechanism to allow broader settlement of surplus energy and improve economic signals for small-scale systems.
The commercial segment installed 176 MW in 2025, down 15% from the previous year. Despite its potential to optimize shared generation and demand, collective self-consumption remains limited. Industry representatives said regulatory updates are still required to enable aggregated management models, dynamic energy allocation, and an expansion of eligible self-consumption areas.
Industrial self-consumption installations totaled 679 MW in 2025, representing a slight increase compared with 2024. UNEF said growth in this segment is being driven by larger medium-voltage systems aimed at reducing electricity costs and partially covering electrified thermal demand. Project viability is increasingly dependent on tariff structures with a higher variable component, as well as more streamlined permitting procedures for medium-sized installations.
Off-grid installations reached 55 MW in 2025, reflecting growing adoption of hybrid solar-plus-storage systems in rural areas and locations without grid access. Battery integration in grid-connected self-consumption projects also continued to rise, improving generation controllability and supporting overall system flexibility.
Looking ahead, UNEF said Spain will need to deploy an average of around 2 GW of self-consumption capacity per year to meet the 19 GW target set out in the country’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan. Achieving this level of deployment will require regulatory stability, administrative simplification, and more effective integration of distributed energy storage.
