Spain: created world-leading CSP industry, shattered investor confidence

This case study by the Climate Policy Initiative examines the trajectory of Spain's concentrated solar power (CSP) industry, detailing how initial successful incentives led to rapid deployment and innovation, followed by a collapse in investor confidence due to retroactive policy changes and a lack of cost-control mechanisms.

• Spanish financial incentives, specifically the Feed-in Tariff and Feed-in Premium, successfully drove the deployment of 2.3 GW of CSP plants in under five years, with an average of 300MW financed annually between 2006 and 2012. These policies also fostered a national industry that controlled 75% of the domestic market and developed over 55% of CSP capacity installed globally outside of Spain.
• The use of premiums over market prices encouraged investment in thermal storage technology, which allowed developers to increase revenues by selling electricity during peak price periods and improved the overall energy system by increasing the availability of dispatchable power.
• A lack of policy controls or caps on CSP deployment made support more expensive than planned, coinciding with the global financial crisis. Furthermore, Spanish policy failed to drive cost reductions or market competition, leaving investment costs higher than in countries like India and Morocco, where recent installations were built at costs nearly 30% lower.
• The Spanish government responded to rising costs by introducing a project approval process to stagger connections and implementing retroactive policy changes to reduce support costs. These actions caused the domestic CSP market to reach a complete standstill, with no new investments made since 2012 and increased risk aversion among investors.
• Due to current policy uncertainty and increased risk aversion, any new public support policy intended to make CSP attractive in Spain would need to be nearly 20% higher than previous levels, even if technology costs were reduced by 30%.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2014). Spain: created world-leading CSP industry, shattered investor confidence. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/san-giorgio-group-brief-spain-created-world-leading-csp-industry-shattered-investor-confidence/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Spain: created world-leading CSP industry, shattered investor confidence. 2014. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/san-giorgio-group-brief-spain-created-world-leading-csp-industry-shattered-investor-confidence/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Spain: created world-leading CSP industry, shattered investor confidence |date=1 August 2014 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/san-giorgio-group-brief-spain-created-world-leading-csp-industry-shattered-investor-confidence/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2014spain, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Spain: created world-leading CSP industry, shattered investor confidence}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2014}, month = aug, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/san-giorgio-group-brief-spain-created-world-leading-csp-industry-shattered-investor-confidence/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }