Global Investment in Renewable Energy: Spain

Spain is the next country on our list after China, USA, Italy, Brazil, Germany, and Canada.

The Spanish economy is characterized by a slightly higher energy intensity than the rest of Europe, by a high dependence on energy imports and rapid changes of the energy system in the last few years.  Security & diversity of energy sources remain the major driving forces for the growth of Spain renewable energy industry. A stable legal framework based on feed-in tariffs with premium price recognising the environmental benefits promotes the development of renewable energy.

 

Policies

Here are a couple of Spain’s renewable energy policy plans (click for more details):

Feed in Tariff– Electricity generation in Spain has two different regimes, the ordinary regime to which all the conventional generation belong to, and the special regime to which renewable energy generation belongs.
A feed-in tariff promotion mechanism is implemented and incorporates both fixed total prices and price premiums added to the electricity market Price.

Grid Access – All systems that generate electricity as specified by the special regulation (renewable energy) and whose capacity exceeds 10 megawatts shall be connected to a central control system.

Motives

Spain strongly depends on energy imports, while domestic production is mainly related to nuclear energy.  Energy demand has increased significantly since 1990.

Transportation and industry are the most significant energy-consuming sectors. In the electricity sector, coal is still the main fuel, but the contribution of gas, nuclear and renewable sources is remarkably high. 

Renewable Energy Availability

The production of green electricity increased from 36,609 gigawatt-hours to 53,750 gigawatt-hours between 1997 and 2004.

In 2005, Spain produced the largest amount of bioethanol in the EU-25.

In 2004, hydropower accounted for almost 60% of all renewable energy production.

Stay tuned for more countries coming up!

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about renewable energy - Knowledge Is Power! For more information go to www.endeavorscorp.com or write to us at info@endeavorscorp.com if you have questions or want to get involved. Have a green day!

Sources: EREC, GENI, Europa, Green Tech Media, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)