Wind power is responsible for 21.7% in Spain

Red Eléctrica de España (REE) has presented the main data on the behavior of the electricity system in its forecast for the close of 2020, where renewables produced 43.6% of all electricity in Spain and thus recorded their largest share in the mix of generation since there have been records since 2007. Wind energy, responsible for just over a fifth of all production (21.7%), was the renewable with the greatest presence in a generation structure.

The 2020 green production quota is 6.1 percentage points higher than that of 2019 and is 3.2 percentage points above the previous maximum annual participation, registered in 2014, according to the data presented by REE yesterday in its closing forecast of the year, which advance the main figures for the year based on forecasts as of December 11.

Thus, Spain generated 109,269 GWh of electricity from renewable sources in 2020, 11.6% more than in 2019; despite the fact that the total electricity production was 4% lower, reaching 250,387 GWh. Wind power, responsible for just over a fifth of all production (21.7%), was the renewable with the greatest presence in a generation structure led by nuclear with 22.2% and followed by the combined cycle ( which contributes 17.8% of the total), hydroelectric (11.9%), cogeneration (10.8%) and solar photovoltaic which, with a year-on-year increase in generation of 65.9%, occupies this year 6.1% of the national generation structure.

Another of the leading technologies of the year is coal, which has cut its production by 60% compared to 2019, reaching 5,064 GWh and registering its annual historical minimum of production and participation in the Spanish generation mix (2% on the total).

The 2020 closing forecasts published by Red Eléctrica anticipate some of the first results of the progress of the energy transition in which the Government of Spain is immersed in the hands of its National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), whose goal is 74% of all Spanish electricity generation in 2030 is of renewable origin.

This boom in renewable production has pushed 2020 to be also the year with the highest production free of CO2 equivalent emissions since there are records (2007). Thus, and always according to the year-end forecasts published by Red Eléctrica de España, 66.9% of all GWh of electricity generated in 2020 come from technologies that do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Thus, emissions derived from electricity generation have been reduced by 27.3% compared to 2019.

The maximum of the green and clean energy production quota in 2020 is mainly due to favorable climatic conditions, greater use of wind and sun as natural fuels and the increase in renewable power installed in the Spanish generation park , which in 2020 adds 2,706 new MW of wind and solar photovoltaic, while reducing by 3,486 MW the presence of polluting technologies, mostly coal-fired power plants. All in all, the Spanish installed power currently has 109,674 MW of which 53% belong to renewable technologies.