On April 28, 2025, Spain's grid collapsed. Over 50 million people lost power for up to 16 hours. To improve system stability, Spain has been seeking ways to scale up relevant technologies and establish new markets.

Seven months after the blackout, Royal Decree 997/2025 has halved the permitting timelines for co-located battery storage.

For sites with granted permits, environmental impact assessment for the battery is no longer required. The path from development to market has shortened from four years to under two.

In this research, we explore:

• How regulation exempts some hybrid storage from environmental assessment and halves administrative timelines.
• What the new permitting framework means for co-located BESS projects in Spain.

Getting an asset to market in Spain requires four sequential stages: access and connection permits, environmental impact assessment, administrative and construction authorisation, and operating permits. The environmental stage alone can take 18 months. Total timeline: up to four years.

Now, battery modules added within a site's previously evaluated footprint are exempt from environmental assessment. Administrative stages proceed in parallel, with deadlines cut in half.

But how did we get there? The failed RDL 7/2025

The government moved fast after the blackout. On June 24, 2025, less than two months after the grid collapsed, the Council of Ministers passed Real Decreto-ley 7/2025.

The emergency decree proposed:

• Environmental exemptions for hybrid storage on existing sites.