Hybrid solar, wind and storage in Hungary: what the 2026 rules allow on one grid connection

As of October 2026, a Hungarian solar park can build a hybrid with storage or wind behind its existing grid connection if combined output stays within the injection capacity already contracted. The owner files a technology-change or co-location request with the network licensee. New wind capacity needs a regulator's tender, and the 2026 round awards points for storage.

Why does co-location matter on Hungary's grid?

New feed-in connections are rationed by tender, and wind and solar produce at different times. One connection used by both carries more energy than one used by solar alone.

Under section 35/A of the Electricity Act (Act LXXXVI of 2007), connections of new producers to the medium- and high-voltage grid are allocated by tender, announced at most every 24 months. The Act excludes some plants, among them those that connect without feed-in power. Decree 11/2025 (IV. 10.) EM, issued by the energy minister and amended in August 2026, now requires the regulator to issue at least one wind tender per calendar year at the minister's request.

The generation profiles differ. The Hungarian transmission system operator MAVIR reported in March 2024 that Hungarian solar ran at a capacity factor of 16.5% on 2022 data, and wind at slightly above 22%. The head of its system planning department said a solar-wind connection point could reach nearly 38% annual utilisation at the points studied (Világgazdaság report of the MAVIR market forum). Telex adds that the best Hungarian wind sites produce at about 30%, against 13 to 15% for domestic solar, and that wind blows harder in the evening and in winter.

SolServices is building on the same idea. At the 30 September 2026 battery signing, Dr Gábor Juhász-Farkas, a SolServices managing director (ügyvezető), said a solar park's connection point is used only part of the time and that combining solar, wind and storage raises its use (a24.hu). The figures and the reasoning are in why SolServices is adding battery storage.

What can be added behind an existing connection point?

MAVIR's Operating Code allows a technology-change request that adds a new unit, such as a battery or a wind turbine, using the feed-in capacity already in the connection contract. The request cannot raise the contracted connection capacity. The rules below come from point 5.1.10(L) of the Operating Code, M47 edition, in force from 7 October 2026.

Adding storage or wind: the process

1. Check the contracted injection capacity. The combined simultaneous output of all plants and storage behind one connection point may not exceed the injection capacity available there, even if the equipment could deliver more. Deloitte notes that in practice this is enforced through separate metering points, scheduling and a shared balance group.
2. File a technology-change request. The Operating Code lets the applicant keep the original equipment at full nominal capacity, or reduce it by up to the nominal capacity of the new unit. It can be filed at any time, normally once per connection contract. The network licensee issues modified technical-economic information within 30 days, unless it asks for missing documents. The connection plan is due within four months of that document.
3. Request extra offtake capacity only where the code allows it. Under the code, extra offtake capacity can be requested only for a storage unit, up to its power, and for a power plant's auxiliary supply. The code excepts equipment awarded in a capacity tender from the reduction option.
4. If the new unit has a different owner, file jointly. This is a co-location request. It follows the technology-change rules, and the owners must attach proof that their sharing agreement was notified to the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (MEKH), a statement on how network-use fees are settled, a statement on how the shared capacity will be used, and a single-line diagram.
5. Hold the right licences. The Electricity Act requires a generation licence from 50 MW and a small power plant licence from 0.5 MW (section 4). Storage has its own licence under section 90/C, issued by MEKH for a fixed term, and the Act applies its power plant provisions to storage regardless of rated output unless stated otherwise.
6. Stay inside the limit. Deloitte reports that MEKH can fine a plant or storage unit that exceeds its permitted injection capacity. The codes of the distribution system operators (DSOs) were amended in February 2025 to add uniform contractual penalties for the same breach.

What the co-location law says

Section 39/G of the Electricity Act, as reported by Deloitte to have taken effect on 1 January 2025, covers plants and storage with different owners on one producer line (the private line from the plant to the public grid). The owners must agree on shared use of the line and connection point. The agreement is notified to MEKH when a unit is 0.5 MW or larger, and the network licensee reports such lines to MEKH every three months.

The government decree implementing the Act sets the minimum content of the agreement. Deloitte also reports that MEKH registers shared lines, and that the legal entity counts as the line's operator from the registration date. Deloitte says the DSO distribution codes carry parallel provisions, so an owner connected to a DSO should check those too.

Why wind is harder than storage

A battery adds a unit but no new site rules. A turbine adds siting, height and defence questions. Since 1 January 2025 the siting rules sit in section 42 of Government Decree 280/2024 (IX. 30.), the settlement planning and building requirements decree that replaced the older national requirements decree (OTÉK). Decree 398/2025 (XII. 16.) rewrote subsections (1) and (2) from 24 December 2025, and the new text also applies to procedures already pending. Under the current text:

• wind turbines and wind parks are barred inside residential, town-centre and institutional mixed-use, and holiday areas, and within 700 m of their boundary;
• outside that buffer they are barred in the national ecological network, on excellent arable land, in scenic-protection areas and in World Heritage areas and candidates;
• new turbines may not stand within 40 km of Hungarian Defence Forces radars or 15 km of military airfields, existing ones may not be made taller, and elsewhere a project needs proof that it causes no loss of defence capability.

The 700 m buffer therefore no longer runs from every building zone, as it did under the 2024 OTÉK text. The government has also designated eased areas for wind under Decree 35/2025 (XII. 23.) EM. Decree 4/2026 (VIII. 28.) GEM, issued by the Ministry of Economy and Energy (GEM), restated the list of districts from 29 August 2026, and Decree 131/2026 (VIII. 28.) revised the criteria for designating such areas. The latter is covered in the Decree 131/2026 explainer.

How do solar-only, solar plus storage and solar plus wind plus storage compare?

Adding a battery energy storage system (BESS) mainly adds licensing, metering and scheduling steps. Adding wind also adds siting rules, and MAVIR's estimates suggest a higher connection utilisation in return.

The Világgazdaság report notes that the 38% applies to the points studied and differs elsewhere. The same MAVIR estimates showed that, on a three-year average, about 2% of output (roughly 380 hours a year) would fall into the band that cannot enter the grid when solar and wind units are equal in size. A battery can store part of that output instead of losing it.

How did Hungary's wind restrictions change from 2016 to 2026?

A 2016 decree barred wind within 12,000 m of building zones, and a 2023 decree cut that to 700 m from 1 January 2024. From 1 January 2025 the rule moved to Decree 280/2024, and since 24 December 2025 the 700 m buffer runs only from residential, mixed-use and holiday areas. Further decrees then set up eased areas and a capacity tender.

Wolf Theiss wrote in February 2023 that the 2016 rule meant essentially no site in Hungary qualified, and that no new wind farm had been built for almost a decade. The 2016 decree text refers to building zones (beépítésre szánt terület), not only to residential areas. Telex puts operating wind capacity at about 330 MW in September 2026.

Does the 2026 wind tender favour hybrids or storage?

It rewards both with points, but it is a wind tender. Wind is the primary technology and storage the only secondary one, and no third technology may be bid (MEKH's FAQ, answer 62; Világgazdaság). Solar cannot be bid. Bids close at 23:59 on 30 October 2026.

Three points matter for hybrids:

• Storage as the secondary technology earns up to 15 of 100 points, and accepting shared use of a connection point with another winner earns 5 (MEKH's FAQ, answer 32).
• Decree 11/2025 EM tells the regulator to prefer, when ranking bids at the same node, applicants that plan a technology or technologies with better capacity utilisation behind the same connection point.
• It also prefers applicants that agree to share a connection point with another winner under section 39/G.

Dates, nodes, the full scoring table and bid mechanics are in the guide to the 702 MVA tender. Telex reports that the government's goal is 4,000 MW of new wind capacity by the end of 2032.

What this means for solar park owners, investors and corporate buyers

Solar park owners with a connection contract have a defined route to add storage within the contracted injection capacity. The first step is to read the connection contract, the financing documents and any support-scheme terms, because the Operating Code allows one technology-change request per contract in most cases. The storage economics are covered in the BESS revenue stack, and SolServices' own programme is described on the battery storage page.

Owners considering wind cannot use the 2026 tender with solar, and the tender's nodes are fixed. Adding a turbine behind an existing point is possible in principle through the same request, but the siting rules in Decree 280/2024 and the defence checks apply to the wind unit itself. The route under the current Operating Code and distribution codes should be confirmed with the network licensee.

Investors should note that wind bids carry commitments beyond engineering and yield, such as municipal payments and EU-sourcing. The 702 MVA guide sets out the scoring and the 25% purchase right for energy communities.

Corporate buyers looking at hybrid output should note that wind and solar peak at different times. How that shape is priced in a contract is covered in pay-as-produced versus pay-as-nominated power purchase agreements (PPAs).