6 key steps to Iberian BESS market entry

Considerations and strategic actions

Interest in Iberian battery storage is rising fast but moving from opportunity to execution is not straightforward. Market volatility, regulatory nuances, and diverging conditions between Spain and Portugal make project approach and structuring critical to outcomes.

This practical guide is designed for developers, investors, and strategy teams considering entry into the Iberian BESS market. It is structured around six decision points that reflect how BESS projects are evaluated in practice across Spain and Portugal:

1. Assess regulatory readiness
   Understanding which rules are settled, which are still evolving, and how regulatory timing affects project risk.
2. Determine revenue stack viability
   Evaluating which combinations of arbitrage, balancing, capacity mechanisms, and support schemes can realistically underpin project economics.
3. Face grid realities
   Accounting for interconnection limits, curtailment risk, and location-specific constraints that shape viable project sites.
4. Structure your project
   Weighing standalone, hybrid, and retrofit approaches in light of permitting rules, grid access, and commercial priorities.
5. Settle on market entry
   Clarifying when Spain or Portugal offers the right entry point based on scale ambitions, timelines, and regulatory certainty.
6. Manage your risk
   Identifying key sources of regulatory, price, and competitive risk — and how to build flexibility into project strategies.

The guide draws on concrete developments across the Iberian power system, including Spain’s limited interconnection capacity of around 1.9%, the emergence of negative price hours since 2024, and rising curtailment risks as solar capacity continues to scale. In parallel, regulatory changes such as Spain’s forthcoming capacity market and Portugal’s hybrid-focused permitting framework are reshaping how storage projects are structured and financed. Together, these factors frame the practical constraints and opportunities that developers and investors must account for when evaluating BESS deployment across Spain and Portugal.

Access the complete framework by downloading it below!

Continue the conversation 

These themes will be discussed further at the Solarplaza Summit Iberia PV & Storage, taking place on 3 March 2026 in Madrid. As the Iberian market shifts from renewable build-out toward system optimisation, the summit brings together key stakeholders to examine hybrid solar-plus-storage strategies, evolving revenue models, and regulatory developments across Spain and Portugal.