Half of Spain’s power generation this year could be from renewables

While announcing another bumper year for the generation of renewable energy in Spain, the country’s electricity grid operator Red Electrica said that renewable energy sources could account for half of the country’s annual power generation this year, up from 42% in 2022.

Red Electra’s chairperson, Beatriz Corredo said: ‘2023 will be a great year for the green transition in Spain and a transcendental year for us to consolidate our position as the renewable engine.’

In 2022, renewables provided an extra 5.9GW of power compared to the previous year: 1.4GW from wind and 4.5GW from solar panels. In terms of solar generation, Spain is third in the EU, following Germany and the Netherlands.

Spain ranks third in terms of the total capacity of solar power, behind Germany and the Netherlands and second in terms of wind and solar energy production.

There is now speculation that Spain will begin using this renewable resource to focus on the production of green hydrogen, which by definition, cannot by made using fossil fuels, which is the case with non-green hydrogen. Spain has the advantage of 2,500 hours of sun a year and plenty of land on which to build. There is also a pressing need for alternative methods of producing hydrogen as the supply of natural gas used in the non-green variety is compromised by virtue of the fact that Russia is a major supplier of it.

Spain’s Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen said: ‘We must all take advantage of the great opportunity that the energy transition represents. It has an immense benefit for citizens and companies, but it has to be done intelligently.’

Thierry Lepercq, founder and president of HyDeal Ambition said: ‘If you look at where hydrogen is going to be produced in Europe in the next million years, it’s in two countries, Spain and Portugal. Hydrogen is the new oil.’