Andalusia has positioned itself as a renewable energy leader in Spain, recording unprecedented growth. So stated Manuel Larrasa Rodríguez, Secretary-General for Energy and Mines of the regional government, during his address at FES Iberia 2025. “Last year, we installed 2.7 gigawatts of renewable energy in Andalusia”, he said, placing the region “in first position in terms of installed photovoltaic capacity, and second—after Castilla y León—in total renewable installed capacity”.

According to the official, growth this year is expected to exceed last year’s. “This year we expect growth to be higher than the previous one”, he noted. He also pointed out that the transformation extends well beyond solar and wind. “We’re also focusing on decarbonising industry in Andalusia with all the hydrogen projects, particularly within the Andalusian Hydrogen Valley”, he explained. This ecosystem encompasses Huelva and Algeciras, where the projects “are already well advanced in terms of authorisation procedures, especially evacuation lines or grid connections for the electrolysers”.

This level of deployment led the region to update its energy strategy targets for 2030. “We’ve raised the share of gross energy consumption from renewable sources to 48%, and electricity generation from renewables has gone up from 75% to 82%”, he declared. “These are extremely ambitious targets”, he stressed, aimed at decarbonising both the electricity system and industrial processes.

In addition to green hydrogen, Andalusia is advancing a strategic alliance on biogas. “It allows us to reach Andalusia’s theoretical potential of 24 terawatt-hours”, he said, while also helping to “solve the issue of agricultural and livestock waste”. Circular economy principles are core to the strategy, with the aim of boosting social acceptance of renewable energy projects.

Social opposition, grid delays, and a call to the national government

Despite technical progress, public acceptance remains a challenge. Rodríguez addressed the recent controversy in Jaén over a solar farm in olive-growing areas: “People are saying 100,000 olive trees are going to be uprooted, or even 500,000, but the plot in question is 23.6 hectares—and you can’t fit more than 2,300 olive trees in that space”. He emphasised that “all authorised projects in Andalusia account for just 0.4% of the region’s arable land”.

He also pointed out that these investments are helping modernise agriculture: “Just from the rental fees paid by developers, landowners are converting traditional systems into intensive or super-intensive farming”. Currently, “around 8,000 hectares are being converted from traditional to intensive or super-intensive olive groves”, he noted. “I believe operational social licence is something that must be developed and achieved”, he concluded.

However, infrastructure bottlenecks are slowing progress. Rodríguez stressed: “We need to be bold and make use of European funds to invest more in the grid”. He issued a stark warning: “We’re only decarbonising around 15% of Spain’s gross energy consumption. That means 85% still remains”.

In this context, he defended the temporary continuation of nuclear power: “We believe nuclear plants should be kept running”, arguing that “otherwise we’ll end up like Germany, which tried to move too fast and is now burning coal again”.

Rodríguez also called on the Spanish Government to grant more powers to the autonomous communities for processing hybrid and new projects. “We struggle to get responses from the Ministry”, he stated. “What we’re asking is to let us handle all hybridisation, regardless of the total capacity”. He proposed a change in criteria: “A key issue for hybridisation should not be about total capacity, but about the access and connection points already granted”.

He noted that all regional governments share this position: “What the sector needs is clear rules—not 17 different ones”.

Rodríguez’s address came during FES Iberia 2025, a forum focused on energy vectors and inter-institutional coordination. This week, the political landscape shifted again as Spain’s lower house rejected the Government’s ‘anti-blackout’ decree, a package designed to support investment in storage, collective self-consumption, and grid resilience. The proposal was defeated by 183 votes to 165, prompting concern among industry stakeholders.

For Andalusia, this outcome reinforces its view: the energy transition cannot be driven by fragmented decisions or structural inertia. “We need to be bold”, Rodríguez concluded.