A growing portion of the renewable electricity produced in Spain is not being consumed due to limitations in the electricity grid. The combination of bottlenecks, delays in new infrastructure, and the sharp increase in solar and wind farms is forcing a halt to generation during peak production periods, precisely when progress is being made toward decarbonization.
The impact is significant: this year alone, 892 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of green energy will go unused due to technical constraints, and analysts estimate that this figure could triple by 2030, reaching 2.869 GWh. This is a considerable amount in a country that aspires to have a virtually emissions-free electricity system by the end of the decade.
Spain: a leader in renewables, but with wasted energy
The European meta-analysis "The State of European Power Grids: A Meta-Analysis ," commissioned by Hitachi Energy and prepared by Aurora Energy Research, places Spain among the countries most affected by grid congestion. According to the report, the Spanish electricity system faces a fundamental problem: demand and generation are not located in the same places.
While electricity consumption is concentrated in Madrid and the main coastal areas , the majority of large wind and solar farms have been installed in inland areas and peripheral regions, with lower local demand and less evacuation capacity . This geographical mismatch, coupled with a grid that has not kept pace with the pace of development, often necessitates limiting the amount of electricity injected into the grid.
Alfredo Parres , head of renewables at Hitachi Energy, explains that limited transmission capacity and delays in commissioning new lines create bottlenecks that force wind farms to temporarily shut down or reduce production. This is known as "curtailments": forced generation cuts, even when there is ample sun and wind to meet demand, a phenomenon that also affects distributed wind power.
Paradoxically, all this is happening in a country that already leads Europe in renewable energy share . Last year, clean energy contributed around 57% of the electricity generated, positioning Spain as a benchmark in the integration of green technologies. However, the report warns that this advantage could be eroded if investment in transmission and distribution networks is not significantly accelerated.
The authors' message is clear: without a substantial reinforcement of the infrastructure, Spain risks wasting a significant part of its renewable potential just when the energy transition and European industrial competitiveness depend on having affordable, stable and emission-free electricity.
Provinces most affected by lost renewable energy
The effects of these limitations are particularly keenly felt in some inland provinces of the Iberian Peninsula, where the installation of large photovoltaic and wind farms has been concentrated in recent years . These are territories with abundant renewable resources, but still with insufficient grid infrastructure to transmit all the energy generated.
In 2024 , Badajoz ranked as the Spanish province with the most untapped renewable electricity, with approximately 177 GWh going to waste. Ciudad Real followed closely behind , losing around 120 GWh , according to analysis by Aurora Energy Research for Hitachi Energy.
Following these two provinces are Zaragoza , with approximately 143 GWh of unused energy, Soria , with roughly 54 GWh, and Lugo , with around 50 GWh. In all these cases, the combination of high levels of renewable generation and insufficient capacity in transmission lines explains a significant portion of the constraints.
The report emphasizes that, without additional investment in grid upgrades, wasted green energy will continue to grow as new parks come online. The case of Ciudad Real is a prime example: the province has become a renewable energy hub, but the grid is still not large enough to absorb the full volume of electricity that its solar and wind farms can supply.
This situation not only has environmental effects, due to the loss of CO2-free generation , but also economic ones: project revenues are reduced , less favorable price signals are sent for new investments, and an opportunity to consolidate employment and industrial activity linked to the energy transition in rural areas and inland Spain is missed.
Europe facing the challenge of untapped renewable energy by 2030
At the European level, the problem of wasted renewable energy by 2030 is also a concern. The report estimates that 72 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, mostly from renewable sources, were lost in 2024 due to bottlenecks and limitations in the grid. This figure is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of a country like Austria , which gives an idea of ​​the scale of the challenge.
The root of the problem is similar to Spain's, but on a much larger scale: European electricity infrastructure is not growing at the same pace as renewable energy generation or the new demand associated with electrification. In many systems, transmission and distribution lines were designed based on a consumption and production map very different from the current one, with few large fossil fuel and nuclear power plants and less decentralization.
Today, however, the grid must be able to connect thousands of onshore and offshore wind farms , extensive photovoltaic fields, self-consumption installations, as well as charging stations for electric vehicles, heat pumps, and electrolyzers for green hydrogen . All this new electricity supply and demand is putting pressure on an infrastructure that still suffers from years of underinvestment.
For Europe to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 , the document indicates that tripling the continent's installed solar and wind power capacity will be essential, a push already reflecting the growing demand in the offshore wind sector . This will be accompanied by an increase in electricity demand of over 70%, driven by the electrification of transport, building climate control, and some industrial processes.
However, the authors warn that these goals will only be achievable if a profound transformation of the transmission and distribution network is undertaken simultaneously , both in terms of its expansion and its digitalization and operational flexibility. Otherwise, the clean energy projected to be installed by 2030 and 2040 could remain partially underutilized.
Collapse of connection requests and queued projects
One of the most striking findings of the analysis concerns the number of projects seeking to connect to the network that, for now, lack available capacity . In countries like Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the Netherlands , the number of pending initiatives has skyrocketed in recent years.
Collectively, these five markets represent approximately 800 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable projects —primarily solar and wind farms—awaiting grid connection, in addition to nearly 550 GW of battery storage projects also seeking to connect to the grid. These figures far exceed the currently operational capacity, estimated at around 339 GW for solar and wind generation and just 10 GW of battery storage.
This enormous "connection queue" highlights the gap between climate ambition and infrastructure realities . Many technically mature projects, with advanced funding and permits, are stalled by a lack of capacity to evacuate the energy or by complex and slow administrative processes for strengthening the grid.
It's not just power generators that have joined the race to connect. Large electricity consumers are also submitting massive applications to connect their facilities to the grid: fast-charging points for electric vehicles, data centers , fully electric heating and cooling systems, and projects linked to renewable hydrogen.
The report estimates that these large consumers in Europe have requested 321 GW of grid connection, a figure that exceeds the peak demand recorded in 2024, which was around 245 GW. This data reflects that, if all this new demand were to materialize, the system would need significantly more capacity, not only in renewable generation, but also in grid infrastructure and storage, to reliably meet it.
Network investment: bottlenecks and needs until 2045
The fundamental question is how much will need to be invested and on what timescale to prevent wasted renewable energy from continuing to grow by 2030 and beyond. Over the last five years, European investment in transmission and distribution networks has grown by nearly 47% , reaching almost €70.000 billion annually.
Even so, Aurora Energy Research's calculations indicate that this figure is insufficient: current investment is between 13% and 44% below what is needed each year to align with the net-zero emissions path. In other words, although the trend is upward, the investment gap persists when compared to what would be required to support the planned renewable energy rollout.
According to the report, Europe should allocate between €81.000 billion and €113.000 billion annually to electricity grids to address existing bottlenecks and prevent them from worsening as clean energy generation increases. This investment range would allow for both the reinforcement and digitization of the existing grid and the construction of new lines and substations.
Looking beyond 2030, the study outlines a roadmap to 2045 that entails a complete overhaul of the continent's electrical infrastructure. Within that timeframe, Europe would need to install approximately 465.000 kilometers of high-voltage transmission lines , some 6,3 million kilometers of distribution lines , and more than 4 million transformers to meet growing demand and the massive integration of renewable energy sources.
This effort is practically equivalent to redesigning the European electricity grid in a single generation . It's not just about adding kilometers of cable, but also about modernizing equipment, incorporating advanced control technologies, and making the system's operation more flexible so that it can safely manage large volumes of intermittent generation and an increasingly electrified demand.
Coordination, planning and more efficient use of the network
Beyond capacity and investment figures, the report emphasizes the importance of improving coordination among all stakeholders in the system . The efficient integration of renewable energy, the electrification of the economy, and the achievement of climate goals depend not only on the money allocated to grids, but also on how their deployment is planned and executed.
The authors emphasize the need to strengthen collaboration between transmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators (DSOs) , equipment manufacturers, regulators, renewable energy project developers, and large consumers. Improved communication regarding equipment requirements and development timelines would reduce delays, avoid duplication, and prioritize actions with the greatest impact in terms of reducing wasted energy.
The study also advocates making the most of available technologies to use the existing grid more efficiently . This includes automation and digitalization solutions, active demand management systems, distributed energy storage, and flexibility approaches that allow both generation and consumption to be adapted to grid conditions in real time.
In the case of Spain, improved joint planning of the grid and new renewable energy projects would help minimize future congestion in provinces that are already experiencing high levels of generation cuts. This requires anticipating the need for new lines and substations in areas where renewable energy development is concentrated and along key corridors to major consumption centers.
The report insists that, with improved coordination and accelerated investment, wasted renewable energy can be significantly reduced over the next decade, allowing Spain and Europe to fully capitalize on their advantage in solar and wind resources and maintain their competitiveness in the global race for decarbonization.
The data paints a picture in which Spain and the rest of Europe have demonstrated an enormous capacity to deploy renewables, but in which the electricity grid has become the critical element to resolve: without a decisive reinforcement of the infrastructures and better coordination between agents, a growing portion of the clean energy that could be produced until 2030 will go untapped , with direct implications for the energy transition, security of supply and the competitive position of the continent.
