Large-scale deployment of new facilities renewable energy It is causing a shock to electricity production in Spain. The influx of green installations has allowed the Spanish electricity system to make history, producing more than half of all its energy with renewable technologies (50.4%) for the first time last year, surpassing nuclear generation, gas power plants and coal plants combined. And this renewable boom made electricity possible reduce greenhouse gas emissions reached historical lows.
HE Spain’s electricity sector reduced emissions by 28% last year Greenhouse effect (especially carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) of up to 31.99 million tons of CO2 equivalent, according to records Spanish Electricity Network (REE)Manager of the Spanish electricity system. The data correspond to the emissions of the entire national electricity system, which includes not only the peninsula (where renewable energy has a greater presence and weight in overall generation) but also the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla. . .
Electricity companies are returning to the path of reducing their emissions, which were broken in 2022 as gas power plants are rapidly used to generate electricity amid the energy crisis and electricity exports to neighboring countries, especially France, rise to record levels. .
The Spanish electricity system has reduced CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions to historic lows for four consecutive years, recording a 24% increase (up to 44.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent) in 2022. Following the sharp decline last year, the electricity sector is reducing its emissions again and setting a new decline record by taking it below pre-energy crisis levels (emissions remained at 35.9 million tons of CO2 in 2021)
The increase in renewable energy has enabled total greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors in Spain to fall by 7.5% to 271.6 million tonnes in 2023, according to a forecast by the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3). and the Energy Transition and Climate Action Observatory (OTEA). However, in the historical series starting in 1990, emissions are at a minimum, even below 2020, when they fell 12% due to the halt of mobility and economic activity due to the pandemic.
The wind reigns
Last year, wind once again maintained its leadership in the electricity sector in Spain. According to Red Eléctrica records (REE), wind farms have become the largest source of electricity generation in the Spanish market, replacing nuclear power plants (traditional leaders in production) and natural gas plants (in 2022).
Wind energy rose to production leadership for the third time in the last decadeAlthough in the last decade he always finished second on the podium. For the first time in history, wind energy became the main production technology in 2013; It was not repeated until 2021, when the energy crisis began; and will do so again in 2023, which has become a record year for renewable energy as a whole.
Wind installations will overall reach approximately 62,662 gigawatt hours (GWh) of production this year, concentrating approximately 23.5% of production, ahead of nuclear power plants (20.3%) and gas plants (17.2%). The technology that will record the biggest increase in production will be photovoltaic solar energy, which will exceed 37,300 GWh with an increase of approximately 34% and become the fourth largest production source with 14% of the total.