International developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) is to hybridise a swathe of its Spanish PV fleet with batteries as part of a wider storage push in the country.
The move follows the passing of a Royal Decree in Spain last year, which gave battery storage a key role in helping tackle the system vulnerabilities that led to last year’s massive power outage on the Iberian Peninsula.
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FRV has revealed that it is developing a 1.2GW/5GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) portfolio in Spain comprising hybridised units co-located with its operational PV power plants and standalone facilities.
The developer said the projects were at an advanced stage of development and would reach “shovel-ready” status in 2026 and 2027.
They will be rolled out across four main regions in Spain: Extremadura, Andalusia, Catalonia and Cantabria.
Extremadura is FRV’s main focus for its energy storage expansion, with hybridisation planned at two of its separate solar sites in the region – the San Serván 220 complex, which will be collocated with a 56MW/225MWh BESS, and the Solanilla PV plan, which will be paired with an 18MW/72MWh battery. Both projects are to be shovel-ready in the first quarter of this year.
Further hybridisation is planned in the region at FRV’s cluster of PV projects at Carmonita – Carmonita Ministerio (320MW/1,360MWh), Carmonita Sur (80 MW/400 MWh), Carmonita Norte (91MW/455 MWh) and Carmonita IV (40MW/200 MWh) – and 111MW/495MWh at San Serván 400, a cluster of three PV projects totalling 150MW.
In Andalusia, FRV plans to hybridise its Alcores projects in Seville with 57MW/285MWh of battery energy storage. In Catalonia, 334MW/1,336MWh of BESS capacity is planned across six facilities in different areas of the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, and Tarragona. Meanwhile, Cantabria will host the Santander BESS Camarreal project, a 50MW/200MWh storage system in the municipality of Camargo, with construction scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026.
FRV said a catalyst for its BESS rollout was Spain’s Royal Decree 997/2025 passed in late 2025 in response to Spain’s April power blackout. Enquiries in the aftermath of the outage highlighted a number of vulnerabilities in Spain’s increasingly renewables-dominated electricity system, including a lack of battery energy storage to cope with volatility. In response, a central provision of the royal decree was to make it easier to add energy storage to the grid, with prioritisation given to hybridisation with operational renewable energy assets.
“The combination of hybrid projects and standalone storage systems will allow us to maximise the performance of our infrastructure, provide greater flexibility to the electricity system and ensure a more stable and resilient supply,” said Fernando Salinas, managing director of FRV Iberia.
“This strategy reflects our vision to lead the energy transition through advanced technological solutions that not only optimise the use of energy resources but also strengthen our contribution to the development of a more sustainable and efficient energy model.”
