Wind energy totals 1,600 MW in 2019 in Spain, and reaches 25,200 MW

The Spanish power generation park is increasingly renewable. During 2019, the non-polluting installed capacity has experienced a growth of 10% with the entry into operation of almost 5,000 new “green” MWs. In this way, renewable energies already represent 49.3% of the generation capacity in Spain, which has more than 108,000 MW, according to the information estimated by Red Eléctrica de España in its forecast for the end of 2019.

Photovoltaic solar energy, which closes 2019 with more than 7,800 MW of installed power, has been this year the technology that has increased its presence in the Spanish generation park, with an increase of 66% compared to 2018.

For its part, wind power, which has added more than 1,600 new wind farm MW to its generator park, will end the year above the 25,200 MW wind energy installed in our country. This 2019 has also meant the Spanish premiere in offshore wind power, with the entry into service of the first offshore wind turbine in Spain, on the island of Gran Canaria, with a generation capacity of 5 MW that is accounted for within the wind.
The decarbonization in our country has also advanced not only by the installation of new renewable power but also by the closure of the Anllares coal power plant in León, which subtracts 347 MW of installed power from polluting generation.

On the other hand, the demand for electricity in Spain during this year was 264,843 GWh, 1.5% lower than in 2018. If the effects of labor and temperatures are taken into account, its decrease is 2 , 5% over the previous year.

For electrical systems, the peninsular demand was 249,398 GWh, 1.6% less than in 2018. Once the effects of the calendar and the weather have been applied, this demand decreases 2.7%. On the other hand, the electrical demand of the Balearic and Canary Islands experienced increases of 1.8% and 0.2% compared to the previous year.
 

Technologies that do not emit CO2 generate 58.6% of electricity in Spain

In 2019, 261,020 GWh of electricity were produced in Spain, of which 36.8% were generated from renewable technologies. In addition, 58.6% of the electricity produced during the year in Spain has come from technologies that do not emit CO2 into the atmosphere.

The combined cycle, with 21.9% of the total, has been the technology that has contributed most this year to the generation mix, followed by nuclear (21.2%), wind (20.6%), cogeneration (11.4%) and hydraulics (9%). Behind is the coal that, with 5% of the total national generation that scores the lowest participation of this technology since Red Eléctrica has registered.

In addition, December 14 was the first day in which coal was not used for electricity generation in the peninsula. With respect to 2018, coal production in the peninsula has fallen by 68.2%. In the national group, the decrease in 2019 was 64.8%.

As for international exchanges, the peninsular electricity system closes 2019 with an import balance for the fourth consecutive year. On this occasion, the figure amounts to 6,538 GWh, 41.1% lower than that registered in 2018. 18,758 GWh of electricity were imported and 12,219 GWh were exported.

In this context, Red Eléctrica continues to put all its efforts to develop a robust and meshed transport network. In this sense, 202 km of new line circuits have been put into service this year, reaching 44,457 km in total. In addition, the company’s transport network has 33,700 km of optical fiber for data transport.