Spain adds 800 MWh of batteries compared with 30,800 in the US

Spain installs 800 MWh of batteries while the US adds 30,800

Between April and June 2026, the United States connected 6.7 GW of power and 20.2 GWh of storage capacity to its grid, and has already accumulated 30.8 GWh in the first half of the year. Spain, with all of Europe's sun hitting its rooftops and solar farms, has 800 MWh of batteries installed. The figure admits no nuances: it is a grid that is running out of places to store what it produces.

There is need, there is profitability and there is battery availability, part of the sector argues. What there is not, it adds, is the will. The same diagnosis has been repeated for years and the result is always the same: renewable energy thrown away due to a lack of storage and grid capacity. And in the background, that same diagnosis argues, is a business built on gas and nuclear that has no interest in moving.

The surplus that gets thrown away

Renewable energy not integrated into the system, the kind that is produced but cannot be placed, already exceeds 1.1 TWh, and self-consumption wasted due to a lack of grids and storage alone is around 2,100 GWh. In plain terms: in the central hours of the day, when the sun beats down, the megawatt is given away; at night, when demand picks up, it is bought at a high price. It is the well-known duck curve, the one we have been drawing for years without knowing what to do with it.

One euro for the sun, two hundred for gas

Here is the detail that best portrays the state of affairs. When a solar farm provides voltage control service to keep the grid from going haywire, the compensation is around 1 €/MVArh. When the same service is provided by a combined-cycle plant burning natural gas, the compensation jumps to between 100 and 200 €/MVArh. The polluter gets paid up to two hundred times more for the same work.

In the background hovers a suspicion that the regulator has not ignored. The CNMC (Spain's competition regulator) peine a confidential investigation and inspected the headquarters of a company in the sector between May 18 and 21 over possible excessive pricing and refusal to grant access to energy infrastructure, an alleged abuse of dominant position. The agency did not specify the name of the company.

What Australia and Bulgaria are doing

Western Australia is building Collie, a 560 MW and 2,240 MWh battery developed by Neoen, and its federal household battery program has taken residential power from 1.4 GW to 7.8 GW. In the last year, Australian batteries more than tripled their shift from day to night and delivered 1,115 MW during the evening peak, moderating prices.

Bulgaria has 5.4 GW of installed batteries: 22.8% of its total generation capacity. Its hourly price differential against the European average fell from 21.2% in 2024 to 8.3% in 2026. Spain is still debating whether storage is a problem of money or chemistry.

From blackout to draft

In 2018, despite its ability to stabilize the grid, solar PV was told to step aside and not make trouble. In 2021, capacity auctions were announced. In 2026, the grid flexibility regulation was still pending, and only after the blackout was a first draft approved. The small hope has a Danish, Chinese and Spanish accent: Battman Energy, Gotion and Elecnor are planning 3 GW of storage in three years.

As a bonus, the uranium issue: Spain is among the countries with the smallest global reserves —less than 0.1%— but it holds Europe's second-largest reserves and a $1.25 billion claim for halting a mining project midway. With 800 MWh installed and uranium underground, the question is no longer how long Spain will take to install batteries. It is whether anyone is interested in it installing them.

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Key data

• Spain: 800 MWh of installed batteries
• US: 20.2 GWh in April-June 2026 alone
• Bulgaria: 5.4 GW, 22.8% of its capacity
• Iberdrola: 4.5 GW of pumped hydro