In 2018, Spain had a renewables capacity of only 330 megawatts. The bulk of the expansion in 2019 is accounted for by photovoltaics: Spain currently has a total fleet of 55.2 gigawatts of renewable energies, 46 per cent of which are wind power plants, 16 per cent photovoltaic power plants and 38 per cent other green electricity plants. These new record figures were announced by the Spanish electricity network operator Red Eléctrica de España. According to their report, around 70 per cent of the newly installed capacity was connected to the high-voltage grid. As a result, the grid operator also had to build more than 30 new substations.
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A new solar era in Spain begins
Most of the new capacity, around 5.8 gigawatts, is accounted for by the 2017 specifications, with the remainder being built outside this regime. The 189 new installations consist of: 86 wind turbines with 2.3 gigawatts and 93 photovoltaic systems with a total of 3.98 gigawatts, and ten other systems using renewable technologies (162 megawatts). In 2019, green electricity accounted for around 37.5 per cent of the electricity mix. This translates into 97,826 gigawatt hours of clean electricity. Nuclear power plants provide 21.4 per cent of the electricity. (nhp/mfo)
