The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has today released for public information the Order establishing the regulatory bases for aid to industrial value chain projects for clean technologies linked to the energy transition. The initiative includes the text of the first call for aid, endowed with €480 million. Both documents can be consulted in the official site.

This program will provide a new impetus to the manufacturing of renewable energy equipment and key components in Spain: solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, heat pumps, electrolyzers and other hydrogen technologies, sustainable biogas and biomethane plants, hydroelectric turbines… significantly expanding the scope compared to previous similar calls.

As part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR), the initiative will contribute to further accelerating the deployment of renewable energy in our country and ensuring energy security by increasing the manufacturing capacity of clean technologies.

The Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE), a subsidiary of MITECO, will be responsible for managing these grants. These grants will be awarded on a competitive basis and will be implemented as a definitive subsidy to be received by the beneficiary once the eligible expenses incurred have been accredited and the project has been executed.

This aid program is in line with the basic principles of the Clean Industry Pact promoted by the European Commission. In addition to economic criteria, projects that include strategic, social, and environmental criteria such as vulnerability reduction, job creation, and reducing the carbon footprint of transportation, among others, will be positively evaluated.

All kinds of clean technologies

In line with Section 6 of the Clean Industry Pact State Aid Framework (CISAF), the manufacturing of clean technologies and key components eligible for subsidy falls under the following lines of action:

1. Solar technologies: photovoltaic, thermal, concentrating and photovoltaic thermal collectors.
2. Onshore wind energy and offshore renewable energy technologies: onshore and offshore wind turbines and tidal and wave energy technologies.
3. Battery and energy storage technologies: batteries, electrochemical, gravitational, thermal, compressed air or liquid air energy storage, and flywheel storage.
4. Heat pumps and geothermal energy technologies.
5. Hydrogen technologies: electrolyzers, fuel cells and other hydrogen technologies.
6. Sustainable biogas and biomethane technologies.
7. Power grid technologies: onshore and offshore substations, transmission and distribution towers, cables, lines, and accessories for the transmission and distribution of electricity, power transformers, electrical charging technologies for transmission, and technologies for digitalizing the grid and other power grid technologies.
8. Hydroelectric technologies: hydraulic turbines.
9. Other renewable energy technologies: osmotic energy technologies, ambient energy and heat pump technologies, biomass, landfill gas, or wastewater treatment plant gases.
10. Energy efficiency technologies related to the energy system: energy management or building automation systems, heating and cooling distribution system piping, etc.
11. Transformative industrial technologies for decarbonization: electric arc furnaces, hydrogen-ready direct iron reduction reactors, industrial boilers, etc.

This list of equipment, installations, and key components must be authorized by the European Commission and may be modified in the final version.

Activities such as the creation of industrial facilities for new manufacturing activities involving this equipment and its essential components, as well as expansions of installed production capacity at existing centers through the implementation of new production lines, will be eligible for assistance. This program also covers activities to convert existing lines to produce equipment and components that were not previously in production at the plant.

Amount of aid

In general terms, the aid intensity will be 15% of eligible costs, although this percentage and the maximum subsidy limits may increase in assisted areas designated in the European regional aid map:

For investments made by small businesses, aid intensities may be increased by 20%, and for investments made by medium-sized enterprises, by 10%.

Beneficiaries may request an advance payment, which will be considered as a down payment and will be a maximum of the total amount of aid granted. Investment projects may also receive support from other European Union programs and instruments, provided that the aid does not cover the same costs.

This call falls under Component 31, “Chapter REPowerEU,” of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP), and will contribute to its associated objectives, in accordance with the regulations governing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) at the national and European levels.

Continuation of RENOVAL

This new program continues the MITECO (Ministry of Energy and Mines) call for grants for projects aimed at strengthening the renewable energy value chain (RENOVAL), which recently awarded 296 million euros to 33 projects manufacturing equipment and components essential for the technological and industrial development of renewable energy in Spain.

Allegations regarding the Order of Regulatory Bases and the call for aid can be sent until September 8, 2025, to the following email address: [email protected]