Spain's solar industry expects new photovoltaic installations to fall below 5 GW in 2026, down from close to 9 GW the year before, as negative electricity prices weigh on the market, the Spanish solar association UNEF said at its annual forum in Madrid.
The warning came at UNEF's XIII Foro Solar, held on 27 and 28 October at the Gran Teatro CaixaBank Príncipe Pío, where Spain's minister for the ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, described energy storage as the key to serving new electricity demand. The forum's theme was the keys to the future of the solar sector from 2026 to 2030, with more than 80 speakers, pv magazine España reported.
Negative prices approach 1,000 hours
Opening the event, UNEF president Rafael Benjumea said episodes of negative electricity prices in Spain are approaching 1,000 hours.
He said close to 9 GW of new solar capacity was installed in the previous year, while new installations in 2026 are expected to come in below 5 GW.
Benjumea described solar PV as a "motor de industrialización", a driver of industrialisation, and a competitive asset for Spain, which he said has the largest PPA market in Europe.
What the industry is asking for
UNEF set out a list of demands for the government:
A floor for electricity prices.
The abolition of the IVPEE tax on the value of electricity generation.
Compensation for technical curtailment.
A competitive market for voltage control.
Bridge loans from the state lender ICO to avoid a liquidity crisis.
Benjumea also said boosting electrification and attracting new demand must be a priority, together with consolidating that demand and building social acceptance of renewable installations.
Storage under construction
Aagesen said the latest royal decrees include measures that promote self-consumption and storage. Around 7 GW of battery energy storage projects are under construction or ready to start in Spain, she said.
Spain's electricity demand grew by 3.2% in the first nine months of 2026, according to the minister.
She also announced that a proposal setting sustainability requirements for data centres has been sent to the Consejo de Estado, Spain's top advisory body. It includes a transitional period so that operators can reach renewable consumption targets progressively.
Aagesen recalled the so-called sun tax, abolished in 2018, and argued that the past eight years have proved Spain's renewables strategy right, with renewables helping to lower electricity costs compared with other European markets.
"La dependencia a los combustibles fósiles nos hace muy vulnerables. Y la única solución son las renovables," she said: dependence on fossil fuels makes us very vulnerable, and the only solution is renewables.
What it means for European developers
Spain shows what happens when solar grows faster than demand and flexibility. Close to 1,000 hours of negative prices erode the revenue of merchant and partly contracted projects, and the expected drop in new installations reflects that pressure. For developers, the opportunities now lie in storage, in hybrid projects and in new sources of demand such as data centres, where the government is preparing rules that favour renewable supply. UNEF's requests, from a price floor to curtailment compensation, show which policy changes the industry believes could restore growth.
Source: pv magazine España, 27 October 2026
