Wind Energy in Spain
2020 wind energy numbers
Renewable sources based power supply in Spain reached 44% of total power consumption in 2020. (Total power demand declined by 5.6%). Throughout 2020, wind power was the second largest source of electricity generation in Spain, with a relative generation growth of up 5.8 %. According to the Spanish National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (NECP) the government is committed to reach about 50,258 GW of installed wind capacity which means about 28.86 billion EUR (35.29 billion USD) to meet European targets for 2030.
The Spanish wind sector installed 1,720 MW during 2020. This means 10% of all new wind capacity in Europe in 2020. Wind power has become in Spain the number one technology (24.67 %) regarding installed power capacity on the Spanish peninsula. Spain was the number seven in Europe in new investments with 1.5 billion EUR (1.83 billion USD) investment decisions in new onshore wind farms.
To learn more about wind energy in Spain, please review their chapter in the IEA Wind TCP 2020 Annual Report.
National Targets
By the end of 2019, the Spanish government announced its final draft of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (NECP), raising the country's ambitions on greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction to 23% compared to 1990 level and 28% renewables share through electrification and transport. That plan stablished that the combination of all renewables will amount 120 GW of total installed capacity by the end of 2030. This capacity will translate into 74% renewables share in electricity generation and 42% share of renewables in the final energy consumption.
This goal should set Spain on track to achieve a 90% reduction in gross GHG emissions compared to 1990 by 2050. By then, Spain´s power system is expected to operate on 100% renewable energy.
Progress & Operational Details
Spain installed 1,720 MW of new wind power capacity in 2020. These installations included 1,051 in Aragon, 216 MW in Castille and Leon, 65 MW in Castille La Mancha, 24 MW in Galicia, 24 MW in Andalusia, 263 MW in Navarra and 29 MW in the Canary Islands
Land-based wind power capacity increased by 1,720 MW to 27,445 MW in 2020, comprised of 1,267 Wind Farms which include 21,431 Wind turbines. Wind-based electricity generation was responsible for 53.64 TWh/yr, representing 22.4 % of total electricity generation (which experimented a reduction of 5.6% due to pandemic). Wind-based electrical generation decreased 1% from 2019 due to lower than average wind year, but remained the second largest source of electricity generation in Spain.
National RDD Priorities and Budget
In September 2020, the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027 was approved with the main objective of doubling the amount of public and private investment in R&D+i to 2.12% of GDP by 2027
The Spanish government considers wind energy a national priority. R&D activities primarily focus on land-based applications: increasing O&M cost competitiveness, extension-of-life strategies for wind farms, optimized manufacturing process, etc. Offshore wind R&D activities are increasing, especially for floating applications. National investments in wind energy R&D amounted to 108 million EUR (132 million USD) in 2019. This budget is slightly higher than the previous years.