As a result of its continued success, the previous Government
target of 13,000 MW installed wind capacity in 2010 has been
updated to 20,000 MW in 2011. In 1999, the target was 8,900 MW by
2010, considered ambitious at that time. The Government's new
target would see wind energy supplying 15 percent national
electricity consumption, up from 6.5 percent today.
"It is a fact, not an aspiration or green dream, that wind energy
is on track to be amongst Spain's leading energy supply
technologies", said Corin Millais, CEO of the European Wind Energy
Association (EWEA). "Installed wind capacity already exceeds
nuclear and CCGT, and will this decade overtake coal and large
hydro."
A new Electricity Act established a "Special Regime" for
renewables, including wind, with guaranteed access to the grid and
a premium payment for generated power. A series of subsequent
adaptations to the regulatory framework has fine-tuned the payment
mechanism, linking it more closely to the wholesale electricity
trading.
Wind energy in Spain has now entered a dynamic phase where the
serious challenges that arise when wind energy becomes one of the
main energy supply technologies need to be met. Current policy
direction signals how an intermittent power source can be
integrated into the electricity market in significant quantities.
Predictability is the key to address intermittency at large
penetration levels.
To move towards 15 percent of the country's power from wind energy
will require a strategic grid framework. According to EWEA, this
is currently being developed in partnership with the transmission
operators, utilities, wind players and regional governments.
"To dismiss wind energy as an expensive, niche green luxury, as
many do, is to ignore what has happened in Spain, the world's
number one wind market", said Millais. "The political drivers in
Spain have largely been about economic development especially in
the regions, creating jobs, competing in world markets, all
against a background of surging energy demand, an increasing
proportion of expensive energy imports, and recently a challenging
Kyoto target. On all these points, wind is a winning choice".
More than 500 companies are now involved in the Spanish wind
energy sector, with about 150 factories manufacturing turbines and
their components across the Spanish regions. Including those
indirectly employed in supplying components and services, the
total number of jobs supported by Spain's wind industry has
reached more than 30,000. This is estimated to double to 60,000 by
2010 on reaching the new target.
"In the energy world with its seductive array of proposed
solutions - from clean coal to
carbon sequestration to nuclear fusion - what convinces most, and
what wind delivers,
is proof, not promises", said Millais.
