The new plan includes higher goals for solar and wind power as well as energy storage and other initiatives.

Energy is a hotly debated topic in Spain ahead of national elections next month, with the front-runner, the opposition People’s Party (PP), pushing to reverse a planned phase out of Spain’s nuclear power plants.

The draft climate strategy sets a 2030 target of 11 gigawatts (GW) for electrolysers, which would be used to make green hydrogen, up from a previous 4 GW. It also plans to double the target for biogas production to 20 terawatt hours (TWh).

The new plan also increases targets for wind generation capacity to 62 GW, from 50 GW, photovoltaic solar generation capacity to around 76 GW, and power storage capacity to 22 GW.

The mix of measures will allow the country to cut emissions of climate-warming gases by 32% from 1990 levels, in line with an earlier Reuters report. The previous target was 23%.

The plan will catalyze investments of roughly 294 billion euros ($321.93 billion), the text says. Of this, 85% is expected to come from the private sector, with the remainder coming from public funds, including from the European Union.

The draft says the plan will add more than half a million new jobs and boost the economy by 2.5% by the end of the decade.

Spain, like other European countries, faced an end-of-June deadline to submit an updated draft proposal to the European Commission. The final plan is due by June next year.

By Pietro Lombardi

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; additional reporting by Andres Gonzalez; editing by Inti Landauro, Louise Heavens and Emma Rumney)