Spain’s solar industry is entering a period of stabilisation after last year’s significant capacity growth, according to the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF).
In its annual report, produced alongside the University of Castilla-La Mancha, UNEF said that Spain was the second-largest photovoltaic market in the European Union in 2025, with total capacity of 67.2 GWp installed.
New capacity
Spain installed some 10,105 MW of new photovoltaic capacity last year, of which ground-mounted plants accounted for 8,985 MW, a 31% increase year-on-year. Self-consumption installations contributed 1,139 MW.
At a global level, solar was the energy source with the most new installed capacity last year, at 698 GWp, taking the cumulative global capacity to more than 3 TWp.
Photovoltaics now account for close to a quarter (23%) of Spain’s electricity mix, which is ‘helping to significantly contain electricity prices during daylight hours’ amid rising fossil fuel prices, UNEF noted.
The solar sector contributed €9.841 billion to Spanish GDP in 2025, or around 0.5% of GDP, while the total economic footprint of the sector stood at €14.121 billion.
Next steps
UNEF said that electrification, storage and an electricity market ‘adapted to the new reality of renewables‘ should be among the country’s priorities, as its solar industry evolves into an economic and industrial advantage.
“Photovoltaics has demonstrated its ability to be deployed on a large scale, generate employment, attract investment, improve the competitiveness of our economy, and provide us with security of supply at a competitive price,” commented Rafael Benjumea, president of UNEF.
“Now begins a second, more complex stage, in which we must move forward in leveraging this advantage by electrifying our economy, deploying large-scale storage and self-consumption, adapting the electricity market to the new reality, and strengthening the social integration of projects. If we do this, photovoltaics will be not only a decarbonisation tool, but also one of the major drivers of competitiveness, industrialisation, and economic growth in our country.” Read more here.
