The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has dealt a regulatory blow to the development of solar energy in southern Gran Canaria. The agency's Regulatory Oversight Chamber has dismissed the access dispute filed by the developer Doctor Chil Renovable 2 (a family from the Condado de la Vega Grande region) against eDistribución Redes Digitales, the distribution subsidiary of energy giant Endesa. The ruling confirms the irreversible expiration of the access and connection permits for the 'Revolcadores' photovoltaic park, planned for the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
The CNMC ruling highlights the increasing rigidity in the application of energy transition deadlines in Spain, where renewable energy plant developers face an unforgiving institutional timetable. The decision, signed in Barcelona by the president of the panel, Ángel García Castillejo, confirms that the Maspalomas plant lost its grid connection rights after failing to meet the mandatory administrative milestones established by the central government to clear the market of speculative or delayed projects.
The legal dispute dates back to February 2023, when the grid operator granted connection rights to the photovoltaic installation. Under the regulatory framework of Royal Decree-Law 23/2020, developers have a maximum, non-extendable period of 31 months to obtain a favorable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or, failing that, formally demonstrate that the installation is exempt from this requirement. For the San Bartolomé de Tirajana project, the deadline was September 13, 2025.
The record of the administrative process reveals a series of technical maneuvers by Doctor Chil to avoid the project's collapse. Faced with requirements from the Canary Islands Government's Directorate General of Energy, which warned that the original design exceeded five hectares and required a simplified environmental assessment, the company reduced the area to 4,9 hectares. The aim was to take advantage of the legal thresholds that exempt small facilities from lengthy environmental reviews.
The developer's strategy ran into technical difficulties with the evacuation infrastructure in southern Gran Canaria. Just days before the critical deadline, the regional authorities notified them that the power line intended to carry the energy violated minimum safety distances from several residential areas in the municipality of Maspalomas. Although Doctor Chil submitted a revised project against the clock to correct the cable route and formally requested an environmental exemption certificate, the island administration's timeline did not align with the demands of the electricity sector's schedule.
The Canary Islands Government did not issue the exemption report until December 22, 2025, more than three months after the national regulatory deadline had passed. Upon receiving the document, eDistribución invoked the automatic expiration clause of the permits, triggering the legal battle before the CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission). The photovoltaic company's defense argued that the regulations strictly distinguish between the generation plant and the grid extension infrastructure, maintaining that the plant itself met the requirements to be exempt from environmental assessments.
The CNMC Council has flatly rejected this segmented interpretation. The supervisory body emphasizes that, by the September 2025 deadline, the developer had not received any official statement supporting the plant's exemption. The regulator goes further, analyzing the content of the late document issued by the Canary Islands administration, noting that the network extension works necessary to connect the park to the distribution grid required the entire project to undergo a full environmental assessment due to its impact on the local environment of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
The financial implications for the retail developer are severe. The loss of access and connection permits not only halts industrial development in one of the areas with the highest solar radiation in the Canary Islands, but also triggers the protocol for the immediate execution of the financial guarantees deposited with the Ministry for Ecological Transition to reserve capacity on the grid. The Royal Decree-Law stipulates that the guarantees will only be returned if it is demonstrated that the delay is due to causes entirely beyond the control of the developer, a matter that will now be left to the discretion of the ordinary courts.
The resolution formally exhausts all administrative remedies before the CNMC, leaving the operator with no alternative but to pursue legal action by filing an appeal with the Administrative Chamber of the National Court within two months. The Maspalomas case joins a growing list of disputes between investment funds, clean energy developers, and the distribution subsidiaries of the major electricity companies listed on the IBEX 35, all vying for control of available capacity at grid nodes in regions with the country's most favorable climates.
