According to data from Red Eléctrica, this year wind power installations have already produced more than 56,000 GWh, the daily NIUS has reported. The importance of this milestone is that wind has outperformed other sources on many occasions, but never before had it done so over the course of a year. You have to go back to 2013, when in addition the Garoña nuclear power plant was closed, to find a time when wind power was above nuclear power. At that time, wind power exceeded 54,000 GWh. It should also be added that wind still has part of December left to continue to rise.
Until now, nuclear has been the largest source of energy generation for electricity consumption in Spain. This year it has already produced 50,834 GWh and, unless there is a radical change, it will finish behind wind power in terms of generation.
The growing number of wind farms, together with solar plants, are increasing the installed capacity of this type of renewable generation, which allows production to increase. Specifically, the installed capacity of wind energy has increased by 12% in two years and will grow even more because there are thousands of projects planned for 2021, making it the main source in our mix in 2021.
Another record was set on Wednesday 8 December: there was more wind power than ever before thanks to the wind blowing so strongly across much of the country that production will be 4.2% higher than it was set to be on 23 January 2021 (at that time, 412,000 MWh, and now 420,000 MWh). This meant that during peak wind power production hours, electricity cost around 14 euros per megawatt, one of the cheapest prices in Europe.