The hour in which Spain caressed the dream of 100% renewable electricity

What until now seemed like a utopia is, every day, one step closer thanks to the expansion of wind and solar energy.

On Saturday April 2, Spain was able to generate almost 100% of the internal demand for electricity with renewable energy.

It was for a short period of time and with some brackets through: it happened only in the peninsular system;

exports were at a maximum due to the technical stoppage of nuclear power plants in France;

and the consumption of pumped hydro plants was covered with nuclear, natural gas and coal.

But it is a true picture of what is to come.

If California achieved the milestone a couple of weeks ago – also during a few hours on a Saturday – the Spanish electricity system is traveling on that same train towards an emissions-free future with totally renewable generation.

The data from the national operator —Red Eléctrica de España (REE)— are illustrative.

Although for the whole day only 61% of the electricity generated in mainland Spain came from renewable sources, at one in the afternoon —with the sun and the wind acting in combination— green production reached 26,394 megawatts ( MW), compared to an internal demand of 27,262, that is, 97%.

“It must also be taken into account that at that time the exchange balance was exporting, that the pumping turbine did not generate, but rather consumed, and that other non-renewable technologies were also generating,” says a spokesperson for the public-private company .

"This situation will occur more frequently in the future," predicts Tomás Domínguez, Director of Operations at REE, which points directly to the boom that photovoltaics are experiencing in Spain.

Red Eléctrica maintains that it has no data on whether something similar had previously occurred.

"It could be that one day it would have happened, but it is difficult," explains Domínguez.

Because there was not such a large volume of solar and wind power installed.

Joan Torrents, a 23-year-old industrial engineer, was the one who put the focus on April 2 through a post on Twitter.

"I knew that that Saturday there was an excess of renewables and a considerable drop in demand and when the official data came out, I confirmed it," he says.

Pedro Linares, professor of Industrial Organization at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, says that the data does not surprise him: "When there is a valley of demand and there is wind and sun, especially in spring, this will continue to happen."

And he adds: “All the scenarios for 2030 suggest that there will be many hours in which renewables will cover everything and prices, therefore, will go to zero in the wholesale market.

It will depend on how demand grows, partly due to increased electrification, and whether interconnections with France increase more than already projected.

But the most probable thing is that, what we see today as exceptional, will end up being something habitual”.

Future immaturity of storage solutions is one of the few factors that could prevent this.

Interconnections with other countries —to be able to dispose of excess generation and to cover the valleys in renewable production— and storage —to support clean energies when there is no sun and wind— are the two keys that Domínguez also speaks about as recipe to be able to manage the system of the future.

In the case of storage, another renewable, hydro, will be fundamental.

Spain already has 5,000 megawatts of pumping power – interconnected reservoirs that store water that they later transform into electricity when they turbine.

And the current climate roadmap of the Government —the Pniec, National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan— sets the implementation of another 3,500 megawatts by 2030, recalls Domínguez.

Add to that an additional 2,500 megawatts of batteries by the end of this decade as well.

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Francisco Valverde, from the retailer Menta Energía, maintains: “It is an anecdote, in a way, but it is important because it clearly indicates where we are going.

The trend is unstoppable: although to see another episode like this we will probably have to wait until the fall [when the sun and wind will come together again, and the demand will have left the peak of the summer behind], it is clear that we will see it many more times.

This specialist in energy issues also predicts that before 2030 the time will come when both technologies (solar and wind) will not have to add up to reach 100% renewable generation in a few hours: one will suffice.

It is one thing to achieve a few hours.

But when will Spain achieve a 100% renewable electricity system all the time?

46.6% of all electricity in Spain was covered by renewables —mainly wind, photovoltaic and hydraulic— in 2021. The Climate Change Law establishes that “before 2050″ the electricity system “must be based exclusively on renewable sources of generation.

As an intermediate station, the current plans of the Executive, which are included in the national plan and the climate law, establish a renewable quota of 74% in 2030. "It is a bit early to know how much the Pniec's ambition can increase, but without a doubt there is room for improvement.

And that the plan is already ambitious in itself”, outlines Lara Lázaro, principal investigator of the Elcano Royal Institute.

One of the elements that could hinder this path the most, she says, would be the delays in the processing of solar and wind plants.

“You have to look at the rest of Europe.

For example to Germany, which is raising its goals”, she adds.

Some countries have already managed to reach 100% renewables, at least virtually, such as Iceland and Norway in Europe or Uruguay, Paraguay and Costa Rica in Latin America, as well as some small Polynesian islands.

In all of them, however, the key lies in the high penetration of manageable technologies —such as hydroelectricity and, to a much lesser extent, geothermal energy— than by photovoltaic and wind energy, which are much more volatile by definition.

The Pniec and the Climate Change Law are roadmaps that are open so that they can be revised upwards periodically.

In 2023, the first modification of the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and penetration of renewables must be faced.

Antxon Olabe, economist and expert in energy transition, maintains that "most advanced European countries, including Spain, are in a position to achieve a 100% renewable electricity system by 2035."

The new objectives that Spain could set will come from the political impulse that the PSOE Executive and United We Can want to give, but also from the decisions that the European institutions have taken and will take.

Faced with the last two global crises, that of the coronavirus and that of the invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission has advocated accelerating the implementation of renewables.

Next week it is expected that Brussels will present a new energy plan and among the measures that are being evaluated is to set as an objective that in 2030 45% of all the energy consumed in the EU be of renewable origin, which represents five points more than what has been committed so far and 23 points more than the current quota.

It is important to note that this 45% share includes the entire energy sector: from electricity generation to industry and mobility.

And in these three subsectors, the one that is most advanced is that of electricity: "it is the one in which the implementation of renewables is easier because the technologies are more developed," Olabe ditches.

That is why the great challenge is to achieve transport and industry that are also 100% renewable as soon as possible.

But this is another story.

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