Ok, not all the time, but last weekend at 5:50am on Sunday morning (8th Nov) Spain set a new record, hitting 53.7% of its energy requirements being supplied by wind energy.
As you can see from the graph above, the amount of electricity being supplied by wind, the light green portion of the graph, doesn’t go below 30% at any point in the 24 hours and is closer to between 40-50% for most of the time!
These are figures the world’s most ambitious countries are targeting hitting by 2020, at the earliest!
Notice also on the graph that the contribution from coal (the red band) during this period is in the low single digits, never rising above 6.4%.
And finally notice also that for a lot of the period significant amounts of generation is below the 0MW line – this occurs when the electricity is being either stored using pumped hydro storage, or being exported for sale on the international markets.
The Guardian reporting on this quoted José Donoso, head of the Spanish Wind Energy Association
“We think that we can keep growing and go from the present 17GW megawatts to reach 40GW in 2020,” he told El País newspaper.
Windfarms have this month outperformed other forms of electricity generation in Spain, beating gas into second place and producing 80% more than the country’s nuclear plants.
Experts estimate that by the end of the year, Spain will have provided a quarter of its energy needs with renewables, with wind leading the way, followed by hydroelectric power and solar energy.
The graph above is taken from the site of the Spanish grid operator Red Electrica de España (REE).
The REE website has highly detailed and extremely interactive infographics produced using Adobe’s Flex software:
Real-time (and historic) demand, along with generation structure and CO2 emissions
Real-time (and historic) structure of electricity generation (the graph above is taken from this page) and
Demand curves over intervals of time
I think this blogpost debunks this pretty good:http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2009/11/spanish-wind-power-exposed…
Spain only gets about 9% of energy from renewables on average, which is much less than a lot of other countries. The 53% number is very deceptive IMHO, and really shows that you can’t count on wind for reliable energy.
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http://bit.ly/3Qkm9i
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@StrangeSpanish I salute you, Master of the Wind http://tinyurl.com/y8mo8nm
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind* http://bit.ly/2pEecu (via @newsycombinator)
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from *wind* http://bit.ly/2pEecu via @newsycombinator
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/qlk1T
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Where’s TBoone when we need him? RT @timoreilly RT @monkchips: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! GreenMonk: http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ
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España obtiene el 53% de energÃa del viento. APRENDE ECUADOR http://bit.ly/2OmsH6 #fb
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StartupNews: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind* http://bit.ly/3C1tnN
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US #1 in wind too! RT @monkchips: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ
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Congrats to España for getting 53% of its energy from wind last Sunday morning. Amazing http://bit.ly/3Fnsh6 (via @dalmaer)
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At peak, Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind http://bit.ly/2pEecu
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@skmt09 RT @timoreilly: RT @monkchips: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/27dxWa
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Cool! RT @newsycombinator: At peak, Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind http://bit.ly/2pEecu
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Spain gets up to 53% of its energy from wind! http://ow.ly/Cfh8
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timoreilly
Wow RT @timoreilly RT @monkchips: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ …..
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timku
Wow RT @timoreilly RT @monkchips: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ …..
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Shared: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind* http://bit.ly/qlk1T
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! http://bit.ly/3fXYhO How about Canada?
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! http://bit.ly/3fXYhO How about Canada?
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Not debunking at all, the first words in the article were:"Ok, not all the time, but last weekend at 5:50am on Sunday morning (8th Nov) Spain set a new record, hitting 53.7%"
Which instantly made it clear that this was an exception. I don’t think anybody is suggesting that you can provide all of your power requirements from Wind, but – clearly, Wind can be an important part of your renewable portfolio in some cases. Obviously Solar, GeoThermal, Hydroelectric, Conservation, Efficiency all have important roles to play as well.
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Guau es una cifra que otros esperan al menos para 2025 RT Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind http://bit.ly/2pEecu (via @newsycombinator)
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/qlk1T
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This is amazing! http://bit.ly/12mPvg Anybody knows if/where we can see similar data for Mexico? (I mean actually generated, not capacity)
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I don’t see how it is deceptive. It’s stated quite plainly that it is a record, and not a normal occurrence. (None of this is spoken in a harsh, rude, or sarcastic tone.) How would you say it differently? (Real question.)
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The title of this post was edited after I posted, it was something like "Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind" first.
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Spain among the top countries in renewable energies. Wind can provide up to 50% of the needed energy http://ow.ly/Cg4u
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GreenMonk: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! http://bit.ly/2B33DQ
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Ä°spanya elektrik ihtiyacının %53′ünü rüzgardan saÄŸlıyor. Bizim politikacılar uyumaya devam etsin. http://bit.ly/3fXYhO
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Awesome. Spain gets up to 53% of it’s needed energy from wind! http://bit.ly/12mPvg
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And most of the time, it has much lower wind production, and they make up the difference by burning a lot of natural gas. This sort of thing is why the natural gas companies like wind so much.
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The title suggests peak energy demand, in fact it achieved it at minimum energy demand (early hours of Sunday morning)It’s like an airport saying that all it’s flights were on time at peak – then saying that they didn’t mean thanksgiving, they meant that on sunay morning they peaked by getting both flights out on time.
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At peak, Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind http://bit.ly/2pEecu (via @newsycombinator)
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Pretty Impressive:
http://bit.ly/3Qkm9i #fb
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For everyone who keeps saying that this is only at peak, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. If you can generate that much wind, then store the energy with pumped storage – you are still getting far more overall renewable energy than you would have otherwise.
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog: As you can see from the graph above, the amount .. http://bit.ly/3vKUSQ
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wow http://bit.ly/3fXYhO let’s do it, do it, do it (via @hackernews)
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://ow.ly/161GTr
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Where did you get your data from?Most of the time, here in Spain, the wind come from the Atlantic Ocean, from an area a hundred miles to the west of UK. And it’s nothing special, compared with France, AFAICT.
The wind from the east blows a half as often and it’s only strong near Tarifa.
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I can’t see it from the article: are they talking about total _generated_ energy or _consumed_?In Spain our government has banned new nuclear plants, so we have to buy electricity from France, that produces it using nuclear plants anyway.
The high percentages of wind power is no wonder. There are _a lot_ of generators installed.
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I can’t see it from the article: are they talking about total generated energy or consumed?In Spain our government has banned new nuclear plants, so we have to buy electricity from France, that produces it using nuclear plants anyway.
The high percentages of wind power is no wonder. There are a lot of generators installed.
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[Green Tech, Wind Energy] Spain gets 53% of its Energy From Wind! Equivalent to the Power Output of 11 Nuclear Plants) http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ
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The headline has been edited since I made the comment.It originally didn’t start "At peak".It is now more representative of the article.
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ Hope that BC will get on with it.
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Some people do, not by living in perpetually windy environments but by reducing consumption and using stored energy supply (eg batteries but pumping water to provide hydroelectric which can be used at any time is also a possibility).
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind – at peak! http://bit.ly/3Qkm9i
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Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind (peak hit last week) — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/2rmTVZ
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At peak, Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind http://bit.ly/3H3077
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Geothermal News: Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind! — GreenMonk: the blog http://bit.ly/1ps9yi
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