Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has awarded EUR165m in financial support to seven pumped-storage hydropower projects under the second round of the BORALMAC programme, funded through the EU’s NextGenerationEU recovery plan (Spanish government press release, 20/07/2026).
The selected projects are located in Asturias (2 projects), Andalusia, Aragon, Extremadura, Catalonia and Galicia. Together, they are expected to add 2.1 GW of installed generating capacity and 21.1 GWh of storage capacity to the Spanish power system. Six projects involve the construction of new reversible hydropower plants, while one project in Extremadura upgrades existing hydropower infrastructure to provide additional storage capacity.
The government increased the programme’s budget from EUR90m to EUR165m due to strong investor interest. Project selection was based on economic viability, technical maturity, renewable integration, grid resilience and innovation criteria.
The first BORALMAC auction worth EUR100m selected four pumped-storage projects with a combined capacity of more than 2 GW. The development is in line with Spain’s target of 48% of renewables in final energy consumption by 2030 (Enerdata’s Global Energy Research).
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