Spanish sets capacity record on PV, wind surge

Spanish installed capacity stood at 110.1 GW as of end-2019, up 6% year on year following additions of 4 GW of solar PV and 2.3 GW of wind capacity, new data from grid operator Red Electrica de Espana Friday.

The year's additions were boosted by a 2020 deadline for renewable energy projects awarded at auction in 2017.

A total of 5.7 GW of 2019 additions came from auction awards, REE said without providing a breakdown.

Wind developers fell around 2 GW short of the total 4.1 GW awarded, and face the loss of Eur60,000/MW deposits, whereas close to the whole PV quota of 4 GW was met.

Of note, the nascent merchant market recorded 767 MW of new additions in 2019, REE said.

Spain currently has roughly 5 GW of merchant plants in various stages of financing or building and more than 100 GW registered overall with REE.

With grid parity reached in Spain, it is estimated that the merchant power purchase agreement-backed market will take over the bulk of capacity additions through to the 2030 targets proposed in the country's National Climate and Energy Plan.

REE confirmed that it has been striving to meet the demand for new connections, amid a burgeoning PPA market, including the construction of 30 new substations during the year.

For 2019, the company said several records were broken in both wind and PV.

Wind reached a peak of 76% of the supply side on Sunday November 3 at 5.20 am CET, and also a record hourly generation on December 12 of 18.9 GW with a generating record of 17.9 GWh in Hour 5.

The daily record fell December 13, with 297 GWh produced.

For solar, annual output increased 19% to an annual record of 8.8 TWh. The daily maximum was breached with 34.8 GWh on August 23, with the monthly record also bumped up to 973 GWh.

Hourly PV production peaked in October, reaching 4.2 GWh in Hour 14 October 26.

SPAIN: INSTALLED GENERATION CAPACITY (MW)

Source REE