Buoyed by a surge in investment and new projects, wind power has become Spain’s main source of electricity generation just as Europe seeks to curb its energy imports from Russia

3 comments

1. >These types of projects have popped up across Spain in recent years, making it Europe’s second-biggest wind power producer after Germany for installed capacity and the world’s fifth biggest.

   >Wind power became the main source of electricity production in Spain last year, accounting for 23 percent, ahead of nuclear (21 percent) and gas (17 percent), according to national grid operator REE.

   >Spain in 2020 pledged to generate 74 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, up from 47 percent.

   >As part of its plan to respond to the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Spain has pledged to speed up the approval of wind power projects of less than 75 megawatts.”Our country had enough natural resources to become Europe’s leading producer and exporter of renewable energy,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday, adding this could be key to help the European Union meet its goal of “energy independence”.

   >Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Brussels has declared a mission to cut the EU’s Russian gas imports by two thirds this year and to end the use of Russian gas by 2027.

   >Spain “could become the energy ‘breadbasket’ of Europe,” said Virgilio Marquez.

   Spain is also perfectly positioned for solar power.

2. Wind & solar are both amazing and scalable; and Europe absolutely must continue to ramp them up. However, they are not stable in the face of the weather. This is obvious but people sometimes forget that. We also need other parts of the infrastructure like energy storage solutions.

3. I remember in a road trip through Galicia I was impressed with how many wind turbines they had. I miss that trip, fell in love with Galicia as a whole.