66.5% of the generation power installed in Spain is renewable

Almost two weeks later, the hangover From the blackout last April 28, it still endures. The energy incident that left the peninsula without light opened several debates, focused on the causes that produced an energy zero. Without ruling out the cyber attack hypothesis, many quickly pointed out the excess of renewables in the Energy mix As possible guilty. Without addressing that debate, the truth is that clean energy sources add up to this day more generation capacity than polluting gases emitting sources.

According to the most current electricity data, the total generation power installed in Spain is 130,481 megawatts (MW), of which 87,714 (66.5%) corresponds to renewable technologies. A quarter of the generation corresponds to the photovoltaic solarthe great indicated at the moment and the one that experiences the highest growth rate. Very closely at this technology, is the windboth being the only two that exceed the 30 gigawatts (GW) of power. Between them, they add more than half of the country’s power.

After these, the Combined cyclesone of the so -called support sources that contributed, together with the hydraulics, to the recovery of the system – without discounting the help provided by France and Morocco. This energy source, with more than 26 GW, is fifth of the total installed power. The hydraulicson the other hand, it represents 13% of the total power, with just over 13 GW installed.

The nuclear centrals They are immediately located on the next step, with 7.1 GW of power and 5.5% of the total. Precisely its existence beyond 2027 is another of the great energy debates that have been fueled in the heat of the blackout.

Of the 16 energy sources that make up the electrical system, these five brings together almost 90% of the total installed power. Beyond these, the magnitudes, with the exception of cogeneration, thermal solar and coal, fall below 1% (or 1.2 GW).

Having a capacity of 130 GW does not imply that the country always resorts to those 30 GW. In fact, the country’s energy demand is well below. According to the gross dice of Red Electric, in April Spain demanded 18,655 GWh, 2.1% less compared to the fourth month of the previous year due to the before Holy Week and, of course, for the blackout. In addition, the Spanish network had, despite the incident of April 28, a Export balance of 1,153,793 MWh with respect to France, Morocco, Portugal and Andorra.

Emptying Spain, supplier

Another interesting way to see the generation capacity of Spain is to do it geographically. Through this optics, you can easily verify how the south and the least densely populated regions have greater generation capacity.

Andalusiawith approximately a quarter of the photovoltaic capacity throughout the country (8,194 MW), it is the region with the highest installed power. Precisely “El Sur” was the region in which the third incident detected in the 19 seconds network occurred before the blackout, according to the third vice president and minister for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge, Sara Aagesen. By probability, photovoltaic could be the first suspect, although the Andalusian territory also has 5,952 MW of combined cycle, as well as with 3,662 MW of wind.

The two Castillaspractically along with total installed power, differ in their composition. While Castilla-La Mancha has more photovoltaic-and the Trillo nuclear power plant-Castilla y León stands out in terms of the number of wind turbines and hydraulic systems.

Estremaduraanother of the indirectly indicated in the ongoing research – “in the southwest of Spain” – counts, despite its extension, with one of the largest agglomerations of generation systems. Despite having 2 GW of hydraulics and nuclear – with the Almaraz plant – the Extremadura region has almost 8GW of photovoltaic.