Wind power in Spain

By year end 2015 Spain was the world's fifth biggest producer of wind power with 23,031 MW installed capacity (including 11 MW of wind-hydro capacity), providing 48,118 GWh of power and 19% of the country's total electricity production in that year. In 2014, a record breaking year for renewable electricity production, wind power accounted for 20.2% of total electricity generation in Spain making it the second most important electricity source after nuclear power (22%) and ahead of coal power (16.5%). In earlier periods wind energy covered 16% of the demand in 2010, 13.8% in 2009 and 11.5% in 2008.

Following the fallout from the financial crisis in 2008 and the dire straits of the Spanish economy in the subsequent period new installations of new wind turbines all but stagnated between 2012 and 2015 remaining at close to 23,000 MW installed capacity for the entire period. Whilst Spain put expansion on ice the other world leading countries continued to expand or accelerated new wind turbine installations and by 2015 India had moved ahead of Spain in total installations. As of end 2015 ranked 5th in the world by wind power installed capacity.

On windy days, wind power generation has surpassed all other electricity sources in Spain; On 21 November 2015 at 4:50 am, 70.4% of the electricity consumed on the Spanish Peninsula was covered with wind power energy. On 6 February 2013, wind power achieved an earlier record in electricity production, reaching an instantaneous peak of 17,056 MW and an hourly production of 16,918 MWh. In November 2011 a capacity peak of 59% of power demand being generated by wind power was reached. Power peaks of 14.960 GW were reached in November 2010, and in November 2009, a wind storm caused wind farms to produce a peak of 53% of total electricity demand (11.546 GW).

In 2009, the largest producer of wind power in Spain was Iberdrola, with 25.5% of capacity, followed by Acciona with 20.9% and NEO Energia (EDP Renewables) with 8.3%.

A 2006 article stated that the intended wind energy capacity to be installed in the autonomous regions by 2010-2011 at 20,000 MW.

The US rating agency Standard & Poors, in a 2006 investigation of standard of living in Europe, ranked Navarre, whose primary source of renewable energy was wind power, uppermost among the 17 autonomous regions of Spain. At that time Navarre sustained approximately 70 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources, wind farms being used most extensively, and had a 900-megawatt capacity of installed wind power.

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Wikipedia