Alert: The Decree-Law promoting electricity storage in Catalonia comes into force

The Decree-Law promoting electricity storage in Catalonia comes into force.

On 5 June, the Official Journal of the Generalitat de Catalunya published Decree-Law 12/2025, of 3 June, to increase the resilience of the electricity supply in Catalonia.

The Decree-Law entered into effect on the following day. Article 1 (transposing the provisions of Article 16 septies of Directive 2018/2001, of 11 December, on the promotion of the use of renewable energies, following the wording provided by Directive 2023/2413, of 18 October) contains a statement that renewable energy and storage facilities, as well as their related infrastructure, have an overriding public interest stating that, therefore, until "climate neutrality is achieved in Catalonia", in the context of authorisation procedures for these facilities, when weighing up competing interests, they must be considered to have an overriding public interest and to contribute to public health and safety, without prejudice to the fact that, when their execution or operation affects the protection of species, appropriate compensatory measures must be established, including financial measures, to ensure a favourable state of conservation or the restoration thereof.

Beyond that general statement, and on a more specific level, Decree-Law 12/2025 amends various provisions of Decree-Law 16/2019, of 26 November, on urgent measures for the climate crisis and the promotion of renewable energies, as well as the Consolidated Text of the Town Planning Law, approved by Legislative Decree 1/2010, of 3 August, thereby introducing several important new developments in the processing of electricity facilities primarily (but not exclusively) related to the development of battery storage. Specifically, the aim is to expedite processing and unblock urban planning obstacles that have hindered development. It is however conditional on approval by Catalan Parliament.

Specifically, we can highlight two sets of measures:

General measures, related to the processing of wind and photovoltaic facilities (including those incorporating hybridised batteries) located on undeveloped or anthropised land

• The obligation to provide evidence of an offer of local participation of at least 20% of ownership of the project or its financing made to persons in the municipality where the facility is located or in neighbouring municipalities or in the same region (required for wind installations of more than 10 MW or photovoltaic facilities of more than 5 MW) is deemed to have been fulfilled when evidence is provided of investment by a public energy company that is supra-municipal in scope (which includes the location of the facility) in which the public administration holds a majority stake.
• As for the requirement to provide evidence of agreements reached with the owners for at least 85% of the private area occupied (which is a condition for applying for a declaration of public utility together with the application for an energy authorisation – otherwise, it can only be applied for once the latter has been obtained), the area occupied by accesses and power lines will not be taken into account.
• The period granted to the competent departments in matters of town planning, landscape and environmental assessment and to the affected municipal councils to make submissions to the comments and reports received at the hearing, consultation and public consultation procedures and the developer's responses is reduced from one month to 15 days (working days).
• The prohibition is lifted on transfers of facilities that are in a processing phase or being developed (transfers will nevertheless require authorisation, although it is expressly established that authorisation will not be required for the transfer of shares or holdings in the facility's owner).

Measures specifically relating to battery storage facilities

• In relation to their application procedures, a distinction is made between batteries hybridised with photovoltaic and wind facilities on undeveloped or anthropised land and independent or stand-alone batteries. In the case of the former, they are now subject to the provisions of Decree-Law 16/2019, of 26 November (with the new features referred to in the previous section). Stand-alone batteries on the other hand will be authorised "following the procedure established in Royal Decree 1955/2000, of 1 December" (which means that they are not subject to the requirements, limitations and conditions established in Decree-Law 16/2019), specifying that "the project's environmental assessment conducted in the energy authorisation procedure has an impact on the urban development procedure, unless changes have been made to the project".
• In the case of hybridised batteries, for the purposes of compliance with the requirements set out in Decree-Law 16/2019 for wind farms with a capacity greater than 10 MW and solar photovoltaic plants with a capacity greater than 5 MW, located on soil and undeveloped land (namely, offer of local participation and commitment to the availability of at least 50% of the land), the capacity associated with the hybridised battery will not be counted.
• It has been established (in terms identical to those already provided for wind and photovoltaic facilities) that the implementation of battery storage facilities associated with activities that have an environmental authorisation or an environmental permit pursuant to Law 20/2009, of 4 December, on the prevention and environmental control of activities, constitutes a non-substantial modification that has no impact on people or the environment.
• Battery storage facilities (as well as facilities for the production of renewable energy for self-consumption) may be located in areas that urban planning designates for industrial, logistical or economic activity uses without requiring any modification to planning (without prejudice to the fact that they must comply with applicable urban and sector regulations and subject to a report from the competent bodies in matters of risk).
• Hybrid or stand-alone battery facilities and their connection infrastructure are classified as technical services that are part of the urban planning system of community facilities (as already occurred in the case of renewable energy facilities with a capacity exceeding 100 kW).
• Battery storage facilities may be authorised as having temporary uses on developable land.

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