100% Green Electricity, for a Record-Breaking Time

On a typical weekday, and for a record-breaking nine hours, the Spanish power grid managed to generate more than enough green electricity to cover the entirety of its mainland demand, proof of renewable power sources’ reliability.

“There are many lessons to be learned from what happened on Tuesday: the importance of interconnections, because, with the ones at our disposal today, discharges cannot be used; the importance of storage; the need to accelerate electrification, which is lagging far behind; and the need to bring demand into the central hours of the day, which is when renewables produce more,” explains Natalia Fabra, a professor of economics at the Carlos III University.

On Tuesday, 16 May 2023, and for nine hours – between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., when the consumption pattern is higher – electricity generated by solar, wind, and hydroelectric power exceeded the demand from companies and households. Spain’s total demand for electricity has been entirely covered by renewables many times, but never for such an extended period. This new record did coincide with the temporary inactivity of three nuclear reactors – Spain has a total of seven – and it goes to show that when Spain will have three fewer nuclear reactors by 2030, “renewables [will solve] the problem on their own,” states Pedro Fresco, B2B manager at EDP.