2024 was another year of records for electricity generation with renewables. Clean energies surpassed the sum of nuclear and fossil generation three out of every four days last year: more than 75% of the total, an unprecedented percentage, as shown by the analysis of data from the system operator Red Eléctrica de España ( REE).
Last year, renewables generated a total of 56% of the electricity. It was a new record in the Spanish mix, thanks to an increase in production from clean sources of almost 11%, with wind as the first source and solar surpassing gas generation.
The rise of solar panels largely contributed to this record. In 2024, the total power of the electrical system increased by 4.4%, up to 130,913 megawatts (MW). It did so mainly due to the increase in photovoltaics, which closed the year with an installed capacity of 31,387 MW, 18.2% more. This source accounted for 85% of the new power. The remaining 15% came from wind power.
Specifically, last year, according to preliminary REE data, 4,835 MW of photovoltaics were installed, a figure, however, lower than the record of 5,594 new solar MW reached in 2023. Even without counting solar thermal (2,300 MW) and to self-consumption (which does not count in the REE statistics), photovoltaics is about to overtake wind power to become the source with the most installed power in Spain. Wind power closed 2024 with 31,664 MW, just 2.6% more than a year before.
In addition to the photovoltaic boom, much of this new renewable generation record is explained by the recovery of hydroelectric generation. In 2024 this source covered 13% of consumption, compared to 9.5% in 2023, when water production increased by 41%. It did so after a 2022 marked by the energy crisis and the invasion of Ukraine and which, to make matters worse, was extraordinarily dry: with the electricity market reaching stratospheric prices, the hydroelectric plant only covered 6.5% of demand that year. On the other hand, gas then represented 25%, the highest percentage since 2008 (32%), and became the first source.
A very different scenario from 2024, when the contribution of hydroelectricity doubled compared to that of 2022 marked by record electricity prices, while the weight of natural gas combined cycles remained at 13.2 %.
The result is that last year, 200 days were exceeded for the first time, generating more electricity with renewables than with the rest of non-renewable energies (nuclear, fossils, etc.). In total, there were 279 days where more than 50% of the energy came from renewable sources. Last year, the previous record, there were 181 days: 49.5% of the days that year. In 2024, 76.4% has already been reached.
Most of these days were concentrated in the months of March to June. In those four months, more than half of the electricity was generated by renewables every day, without exception.
2023 was already the first year in which more renewable electricity was generated in Spain than from other sources. That year, renewables covered 50.3% of the total in a milestone that had been moving forward for months, when a report identified Spain as the first major European country that would overcome the 50% barrier. Last year, clean energy production continued its rise and added 148,000 GWh.
To see the evolution of renewables in recent years, it is enough to say that in 2011 their weight was barely 31%. Almost half of what they represented in 2024, as can be seen in the following graph.
While solar and hydroelectric power rose in 2024 (which returned to levels similar to those before the pandemic and reached its best record since 2018), wind power remained. Last year, windmills contributed 23% of the total generation (the same as in 2023). For its part, the sum of energy from reservoirs and the sun goes from 25% in 2023 to 31% in 2024.
In addition, the sum of gas and coal falls below 15% of generation in a year for the first time. By 2025, if technical conditions allow (especially in the Balearic Islands), the closure of the last coal units in Spain is planned, in accordance with the forecasts of the latest update of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). The new roadmap sent to the European Commission in September has brought forward this coal eradication goal, which was initially set in 2030.
Below you can see the evolution of electricity generation in the last 12 months. The graph shows the explosion of solar energy, the fall of gas, the maintenance of wind power and the rise of hydroelectric power. Furthermore, it can be seen how solar energy is getting closer to surpassing nuclear energy in generation.
As a result of this boom, in 2024 a new record for solar production was recorded (mainly due to photovoltaics), with almost 49,000 GWh generated during the year. The ten days in history with the most solar generation in history (more than 225 GWh in a single day) were also recorded.
The data show how the change in the structure of electricity generation in Spain continues. Two magnitudes explain it very graphically: photovoltaic and solar thermal generation has multiplied by five in just over a decade and wind generation has increased by 43% in the same period of time. Meanwhile, we burn less and less gas and less coal.
The change is seen when we compare month-by-month generation in 2011 with 2024. In the spring months, renewable generation reaches its ceiling by mixing good wind, hydro and solar data. Meanwhile, photovoltaics skyrocket in the summer months, reaching up to 27% of generation. And the winter months continue to be the ones with the least energy from clean sources.
While the renewable sector finds it difficult to achieve the ambitious installation objectives of the PNIEC, the staggered nuclear blackout that the Government agreed upon with the electricity companies is not scheduled to begin until 2027, and which contemplates the closure of the first reactor at the Almaraz plant. for two years from now. Nuclear power has been steadily supplying around 20% of the electricity in Spain in recent years. In 2024, its weight was 19.6%.
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