Growth is also reflected in the main technologies. Wind power accounts for 6,161 MW, 20% more than in 2023, while photovoltaic power has reached 4,525 MW, an increase of 80% over the same period.
ARAGÓN HAS MORE THAN 10,000 MW PLANNED
During the Committee on the Economy, Competitiveness and Employment, Vallés said that this growth still has room to continue. Electricity generation facilities totaling more than 10,000 MW of capacity are planned in Aragón. Of this amount, 6,330 MW have already been authorized and are awaiting construction, while the Government of Aragón is processing a further 4,048 MW.
The Director General also highlighted the role of self-consumption, which, in her view, benefits companies by allowing them to reduce electricity prices and increase their consumption when they cannot secure greater access to the electricity grid. Aragón currently has 721 MW of installed self-consumption capacity, distributed across 14,096 individual installations and 294 collective self-consumption installations. Of the latter, 44 are energy communities.
THE ELECTRICITY GRID, “THE MAIN PROBLEM”
However, Vallés said that the available capacity to meet energy demand with renewables has been reduced “because of the 2024 blackout.” According to her explanation, the incident led the Spanish Government to impose new technical restrictions “for grid security,” increasing the share of combined-cycle gas plants and, in her view, driving up electricity prices.
In addition, the Director General of Energy and Mines pointed out that all this growth has not been accompanied by an increase in electricity grid capacity, which she described as “the main problem.” “There is an imbalance between installed generation capacity and actual production,” she said, citing as an example that many facilities are not connected while others have reduced their generation.
The Government of Aragón has been calling on the central government to invest in the electricity grid, arguing that it is saturated and that this situation could slow the technology investments planned for the region. On Wednesday, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aegesen, announced an investment of more than 17 billion euros to improve the electricity transmission grid by 2030, with 300 new distribution positions.
Vallés reacted cautiously to the announcement and recalled that many of the proposals put forward by Aragón regarding the first draft were not accepted. “Of the seven distribution positions, they accepted only one. We have now requested 15 to see whether we can obtain more capacity,” she said.
