New Record: Wind Powers 40% Of Spain

[Daox]

Wow is about all I can say here.

Spain, which along with Germany and Denmark, is among the three biggest producers of wind power in the 27-nation European Union, is aiming to triple the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources by 2020.

New Record: Wind Powers 40% Of Spain >> MetaEfficient Reviews

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Daox

Wow is about all I can say here.

Who would have thought, 20 years ago, that Spain would be moving into the future, and we (USA) would be moving into the past.

-AC

[skyl4rk]

Even though it was only an instantaneous 40%, it shows that they have built an incredible energy resource. A good part of their transportation system is electric trains so they also have a sustainable transportation system.

Imagine in 15 to 20 years when the wind generation equipment is paid off and the cost of producing power drops, they will become an extremely wealthy nation.

[strider3700]

20 years ago spain had nothing to lose and decided to try something different.
America still believes it has lots to lose so nothing changes.

[RobertSmalls]

MetaEfficient's title should have been "Wind powered 40% of Spain very briefly during wind storm". Kenya may still hold the record for largest percentage of electricity derived from wind.

The article also has me wondering what percentage of Quebec's electric consumption is generated from hydro. >100%? Given Spain's wealth of sites with good wind and solar resources, Spain may become the Quebec of western Europe, exporting large amounts of clean electricity.

[Piwoslaw]

One of the things the Wife and I keep talking about are the wind farms we saw during our visits to Spain. Some of those turbine were HUGE, and there were lots of them, everywhere. It seems like every hill or ridge south of the Pyrenees had wind turbine.

Add to that quite a bit of hydro from small and medium sized installations in the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada mountains, and a great climate for solar (small solar hot water and PV installs in many places, plus the largest solar power plant in the world) and it just makes you want to go back.

I believe that one of the reasons for the large shift to RE is because Spain imports its coal, which makes it tha much more expensive.

[st2288]

we are so far behind from every industrial nations on green energy.. It is so sad.
Even China is way ahead of us.. Can you imagine, instead using Billion to simulated the economy, we make solar panel affordable to everyone.. less than $1.00 a watt...
But I think our oil companies lobbylists and our govn't wont allow it makes too much sense.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by st2288

But I think our oil companies lobbylists and our govn't wont allow it makes too much sense.

I think we're now firmly placed in a corporate-controlled death spiral.

The recent Supreme Court rulings, that removed restrictions on political contributions, have pretty much neutralized our most important feed-back mechanism, the democratic process.

I don't expect that there will be any significant public action until people are gripped by the realization that they have lost everything and there is nothing left to lose.

That's not going to happen soon and it'll be a long, long way to fall.

-AC_Hacker

[Piwoslaw]

Spain Supplied With 75% Clean Energy On A Great Day In January

In Spain on January 6, clean energy was able to supply a record 75 percent of national power. What’s more, coal only made up 4 percent of overall power for that day.

Annual data from major Spanish power transmission company Red Electrica also confirmed that for the whole year of 2010, clean energy supplied 35 percent of all power. The country went well beyond its target of 30 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2010.

Wind power alone supplied 16 percent of electricity, twice as much as coal on windy days. On very windy days, wind power reached to over half of national power needs.

In fact Spain has almost reached its goal of 35.5 percent renewable energy by 2020, nearly a decade ahead of schedule. In 2010, coal-fired power was lowered by 34 percent and gas-fired power was lowered by 17 percent, leading to a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, 22 gas projects have been canceled and renewables provide jobs for around 100,000 people.

[NeilBlanchard]

We North Americans need to ecomod our grid, too!