The website of the English Electricity Network offers a great collection of data on consumption and electricity production in Spain. I compiled this chart for annual data for the last fifteen years because I find it interesting to see how the landscape has changed. The vertical axis are MWh per year, positive energy is consumed in Spain (or transport loss) while exports are negative.
attention, is the enormous growth in electricity consumption over the years. In fifteen years electricity consumption has increased almost 70% (even taking into account the decline in 2009). In the same period the population only increased by 15%, so one could say that we consume much more energy per person. However, this correlation is misleading, since much of the electricity consumed is used in commercial and industrial applications. During the past 15 years, Spain's GDP has increased by 168%, so actually in terms of energy consumed to produce wealth are now much more efficiency than we were then. This relationship also corresponds to the reduction of consumption in 2009 due to lower economic activity.
second thing to me caught my attention was the realization that, contrary to popular belief, 6 years ago that Spain is energy independent from France. Moreover, in the last 6 years our exports have increased energy becoming twice the maximum that we used to import.
The energy move from being dependent to independent (and exporters) is due to increase of two types of energy: renewable one hand, but overall, combined cycle plants. The increase of these two types of energy has been able to ensure growth, increase exports, and allowing the closure of coal plants, more pollution. In this sense, Spain and produces 30% of its electricity from renewables, making it the main source of energy. A milestone indeed unimaginable a few years ago. It is curious however to look at another statistic, and is the sum of hydro, nuclear and renewables, ie those that do not emit CO2. It turns out that the percentage of production that it is up to these three, has hardly changed in the last 15 years. Has always been between 50% and 65%, and is currently at 58%. Obviously, Combined cycle plants are much more efficient in terms of CO2 than coal, but it is curious that despite the growth of renewable, zero-emissions electricity production has not changed its weight in the electricity mix.
Given the status of the exporting country, and the current momentum for renewables and combined cycle plants in Spain, it seems that the next step would be the complete disappearance of the coal plants, however, the government has already announced support the remaining coal plants as a form of subsidy of miners in northern Spain, so it seems that coal will remain in the electricity mix English long time. Since this government has been the one that has reduced electricity production from coal, it would be unfair to point the finger as the culprit, but it remains a missed opportunity to get rid of outdated technology, inefficient and amortized.
