Lleida doubles rooftop solar self-consumption installations

Lleida closed 2025 with 11,433 photovoltaic self-consumption installations used by households and businesses, according to data from the Catalan Energy Institute, or ICAEN, reported on May 18 by regional newspaper Segre. The total was nearly double the 6,275 installations registered three years earlier. ICAEN’s broader year-end tally showed those systems in Lleida province amounted to 161.79 megawatts of installed capacity. Catalonia as a whole ended 2025 with 138,419 photovoltaic self-consumption installations in service, according to the regional government. ### How fast did Lleida’s rooftop solar base grow? The jump from 6,275 to 11,433 installations over three years gives Lleida one of the clearest local snapshots of Catalonia’s self-consumption buildout. Segre attributed the figures to ICAEN data published on May 17. The count covers photovoltaic self-consumption systems used by private individuals and companies. (segre.com) Catalonia added 14,873 new photovoltaic self-consumption installations in 2025 alone, bringing the regional total to 138,419, the government said in a May 17 statement. Installed capacity rose by 253.23 MW during the year, an 18.3% increase, to 1,634.55 MW. ### What did the Catalan government say drove the increase? (segre.com) Sílvia Paneque, Catalonia’s regional minister for territory, housing and ecological transition, said the figures showed that households and companies increasingly saw generating their own electricity as “more profitable and responsible.” She said the government had tried to support the practice by simplifying permitting and promoting energy communities. (govern.cat) The regional government also said shared self-consumption systems expanded in 2025. That category, which supplies more than one consumer from a single installation, grew 32.8% in number of installations and 64.2% in installed capacity, reaching 2,342 units and 67.8 MW, according to the May 17 statement. ### Who is installing most of these systems? (govern.cat) Catalonia said 85.8% of the region’s photovoltaic self-consumption installations are tied to domestic consumers. Those smaller residential systems account for 36.8% of total installed capacity, while industrial users represent 3.0% of installations but 34.0% of capacity. Installations above 100 kW make up 1.0% of the total number of systems and 34.5% of installed capacity, the government said. (govern.cat) Those figures indicate Lleida’s installation boom is not limited to one type of user. Segre reported that the 11,433 systems in Lleida at the end of 2025 were owned by both households and businesses. That description matches the wider Catalan pattern of many small systems alongside a smaller number of larger commercial and industrial arrays. (govern.cat) ### How does Lleida compare with the rest of Catalonia? Barcelona had the largest number of self-consumption systems in service at the end of 2025, with 81,193 installations totaling 964.52 MW, according to the Catalan government. Girona had 23,531 installations and 251.13 MW, Tarragona had 22,262 and 257.1 MW, and Lleida had 11,433 and 161.79 MW. (segre.com) Red Eléctrica said Spain’s installed self-consumption capacity stood at 10,915 MW as of Dec. 31, 2025, of which 8,856 MW was solar photovoltaic. Catalonia ranked second among Spain’s regions with 1,947 MW of total self-consumption capacity, behind Andalusia and ahead of Valencia, according to the grid operator’s system report. (govern.cat) ### What projects are still in the pipeline inside Lleida? Lleida city hall said in June 2025 that it would equip the roofs of 53 public buildings and related entities with photovoltaic installations for self-consumption. The project was designed for a maximum installed capacity of 3,900 kWp across 12,550 square meters of rooftops, with expected minimum production of 5,743,705 kWh a year. (sistemaelectrico-ree.es) The municipality said the program was expected to save about 120,000 euros a year on electricity bills and would use a performance-based contract linking payment to the solar energy actually self-consumed. The city said 37 municipal buildings were selected as the most technically viable sites, with additional capacity assigned to affiliated entities including Fira de Lleida and the Agrobiotech Park consortium. (eseficiencia.es)