Renewable electricity generation
Information based on provisional data from 8 April, 2022
This year saw the highest levels of clean electricity being registered since records began.
Peninsular renewable production in 2021 increased by 9.6 % over the previous year, standing at 119,445 GWh and reaching a new all-time high for annual peninsular renewable production and a share of 48.4 % in the generation mix on the Spanish mainland.
During almost every month of 2021 (except September, October and December) renewable generation was higher than the previous year, coinciding with the increase in wind and solar photovoltaic production. The highest increases in renewable energy occurred during the first half of the year, with the highest growth recorded in February with a value of 42.7 %, and in the same month, a new all-time high share of renewable energy in the peninsular generation mix was set at 60.5 %. In addition, the highest values to date for renewable generation were recorded for the months of January, June, July and August.
To enable the operation of an electricity system with such a high penetration of renewable energy under safe conditions, the control and supervision work carried out by Red Eléctrica's Control Centre for Renewable Energies (CECRE) is essential. In 2021, CECRE celebrated its 15th anniversary and, since its commissioning, it has continued to be a pioneering centre of worldwide reference for the integration of renewable energy.
The work of CECRE has made it possible that in 2021 the contribution of renewable energy to peninsular electricity generation set a new all-time high, reaching a share of 48.4 % in the generation mix, 2.9 percentage points higher than the previous peak recorded in 2020 when renewables accounted for 45.5 % of the mix. This higher share of renewable generation in 2021 is mainly due to the increase in wind and solar photovoltaic production, 10 % and 37.4 % higher respectively than in the previous year, as a result of weather conditions and the increase in installed power capacity in the peninsular system.
New renewable energy records in the electricity system in the Balearic Islands.
In 2021 renewable technologies reached an all-time record for annual production with 313 GWh, 32.2 % higher than the renewable production value of the previous year. 6.8 % of energy generation in the electricity system on the Balearic Islands came from renewable sources.
In May 2021, renewable production reached 10.6 % of the Balearic Islands’ generation mix and on Saturday 29 May renewable generation reached its maximum value with 14 % of the total generation. With regard to the summer months, renewable generation broke the all-time record high on several occasions reaching its new maximum in August with 35,020 MWh, 51.3 % above the same month of the previous year.
Noteworthy among the renewable generation sources is the increase in solar photovoltaic, which in 2021 grew 58.9 % to reach an all-time record with 188,247 MWh. This technology accounted for 4.1 % of the annual production of the Balearic Islands, occupying the fourth position in the generation mix and overtaking coal for the first time ever.
In May 2021, solar photovoltaic facilities reached their highest monthly share ever, generating 8.3 % of the entire Balearic Islands’ mix, reaching 10.6 % of all the energy generated on Saturday 8 May. During July 2021, the highest amount of solar photovoltaic energy recorded to date was produced, with 22,966 MWh.
Maximum share of renewables in the Canary Islands’ energy mix.
Due to the higher installed power capacity, 2021 was a year of records regarding maximum renewable production registered in the Canary Islands’ system. Specifically, renewable generation in the archipelago in 2021 was 15.4 % higher than in 2020, reaching an annual record high of 1,606 GWh. The share of this renewable generation in the energy mix on the Canary Islands also beat the all-time record with a value of 19.9 % compared to 17.5 % registered the previous year.
In May 2021, this renewable generation achieved the highest share in the mix recorded to date with 30.7 % of the energy produced that month in the Canary Islands. Regarding daily production, renewable energy reached a new maximum share in the Canary Islands’ generation mix on Sunday 23 May with 46.6 %, and on Tuesday 28 September renewable generation beat all previous records with a value of 9,523 MWh.
Wind power production continued to drive the energy transition in the archipelago and was the technology that on more occasions broke its own records during 2021.
May 2021 saw the highest share of this technology in the generation mix with 25.8 % of the total produced in the Canary Islands. In addition, on Sunday 23 May wind power produced 41.8 % of all the energy in the archipelago and on Tuesday 28 September wind power generation broke the all-time record with a value of 8,720 MWh.
Throughout 2021 on the island of Gran Canaria, wind power repeatedly set new records in terms of instantaneous power, representing 55.9 % of the demand on Tuesday 25 May at 23:55 and on Saturday 6 November at 3:33 p.m. a new maximum value was set at 197.57 MWh.
For its part, Tenerife reached its highest record on Thursday 9 December at 3:00 p.m., generating 208.6 MW with wind power. Also in 2021, Tenerife’s solar photovoltaic generation beat its own record regarding its share in the generation mix by covering 28.6 % of the island's demand on Tuesday 10 August at 3:45 p.m.
The Lanzarote-Fuerteventura unified system broke its own record for instantaneous production using wind power technology, registering its highest ever value of 70.35 MW on Friday 23 July at 4:27 p.m.
Monthly renewable integration on the island of El Hierro reached 48.3 % for the year as a whole.
For the island of El Hierro, a particularly important electricity system due to the Gorona del Viento hydro-wind power station, the continuous review of its operating criteria has made it possible to achieve very high levels of renewable integration. Thus, in July 2021, the monthly integration of renewables into this system reached 81 %, achieving 48.3 % for the year as a whole.
Annual evolution of renewable energy production
Renewable energy generation structure broken down by autonomous community and type of power station
In 2021, renewable energy reached new all-time highs of electricity generation
Regarding daily production, on the mainland on Saturday 30 January 2021 the all-time high was beaten for renewable generation reaching 544,980 MWh and, during that same day, 71.1 % of the peninsular electricity production came from renewable sources.
Lastly, the hourly renewable production registered the all-time maximum level regarding its share in the generation mix on Saturday 30 January 2021 between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. with a total of 76.6 % of the peninsular production. The maximum hourly generation for the year was registered between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday 8 December 2021 with a total of 27,826 MWh.
Maximum renewable energy generation
Summer: June-September.
In 2021, hydroelectric power stations on the mainland reduced their production compared to the previous year
Hydroelectric generation on the mainland in 2021 reached 29,592 GWh, a decrease of 3.4 % compared to 2020, which was a slightly wet year. Its contribution to the peninsular generation mix was 12 % and this was 0.8 percentage points lower than the share this technology had in the energy mix the previous year. In 2021, the total electricity generated by hydroelectric power stations ranked this technology as the fourth source of generation in the peninsular total, as was the case in 2020.
The comparative graph, shown below, regarding peninsular hydroelectric generation 2020-2021 shows how during all the months of 2021 hydroelectric production was only higher than that generated in 2020 in the period of January to March and during the month of July. The months in which hydroelectric production registered the greatest increases were February, with a growth of 59.2 %, and July, with generation 20.1 % higher than in the same period of the previous year. On the contrary, the largest reduction in monthly hydroelectric production took place in November when hydroelectric power stations generated 51.5 % less than in the same month of 2020.
Peninsular hydroelectric generation 2020-2021 compared to average generation
Maximum, average and minimum daily coverage using hydro
This decrease in hydroelectric generation was in line with the producible hydroelectric energy (maximum amount of electricity that theoretically could be produced considering the water reserves available), which in 2021 reached a value of 26,852 GWh, 12.2 % less than that recorded in 2020 and 9.4 % more than the annual historical average value. Therefore, we can consider that 2021 as a whole was a dry year as the producible hydroelectric index, defined as the quotient between producible energy and average producible energy, registered a value of 0.91.
Daily producible hydroelectric energy during 2021 compared to the historical average producible
Hydroelectric reserves during 2021 registered values below the statistical average
In terms of the amount of precipitation, 2021 was a dry year overall. It started with a wet January, with precipitation 19 % above average, and with an episode of heavy and persistent rains in which Storm Filomena gave rise to heavy precipitation in the form of snow in many areas of the interior of the peninsula on the 8th and 9th of the month. February was also wet, with an average rainfall 35 % above the normal value for the month. The rest of the year had a very dry spring, a wet summer and a dry autumn. Finally, the months of October and November were dry while the month of December was normal in terms of rainfall.
In 2021, hydroelectric reserves were above the statistical average (calculated with the values of the last twenty years) only in the months of January, February and March. From April onwards, reserves began to fall every month until reaching the lowest point of the year between October and November with a fill level of 32.1 %, a value that is around 13 percentage points lower than in the same months of the previous year.
In the last month of the year, overall hydroelectric reserves rose slightly and registered a volume of water in hydroelectric reservoirs in Spain on 31 December 2021 that stood at 36 % of their fill capacity, a value that is still 14.8 percentage points lower than that of the previous year.
Annual evolution of total hydroelectric reserves (annual and hyper-annual)
Installed hydro power capacity and hydroelectric reserves by peninsular hydrographic basins as at 31 December 2021
Maximum renewable generation on the mainland due to the increase in the contribution of wind and solar photovoltaic generation
In 2021 the peninsular power generation fleet added nearly 750 new MW of wind power capacity, which paved the way for several all-time records to be beaten during the year. Firstly, peninsular wind power production in 2021 set a new record with an annual total of 59,184 GWh, which is 10 % more than that recorded the previous year. This increase occurred mainly in the first and second quarters of the year, when wind generated 31.8 % and 13.2 % more than in the same periods of 2020, with January registering a 53.7 % increase in production compared to the same month in 2020. In addition, January, February and July recorded the highest monthly wind power production to date for each of these months.
Wind power was the leading technology in the peninsular generation mix
As a consequence of this growth, wind power was the leading technology in the peninsular generation mix with a share of 24 %, the highest percentage registered since records began. This situation had only occurred previously in 2013 when wind shared the leading role in the peninsular generation mix with nuclear, with both technologies registering a share of 20.9 %.
Wind was the technology with the highest share in the mainland generation mix during half of the months of 2021, specifically in January (30.1 %), February (30.8 %), March (26.1 %), May (23.7 %), November (28.9 %) and December (30 %).
With regard to daily wind power generation, during 2021 the all-time maximum record for peninsular wind power production was beaten on several occasions registering a new all-time record of 423,224 MWh on Wednesday 8 December, which represents an increase of 6.5 % compared to the previous record high registered on Friday 13 December 2019.
Also on Wednesday 8 December 2021, a new maximum value for hourly generation was set between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. with a value of 20,293 MWh and at 1:34 p.m. the record for instantaneous power for wind generation in the peninsular electricity system was beaten with a value of 20,130 MWh. This new maximum value represented an increase of 2.8 % over the previous record of 19,588 MW, registered on Monday 28 December 2020 at 2:28 p.m.
During the month of December 2021, the all-time maximum value for instantaneous demand coverage using wind power generation on the peninsular was beaten twice. The first time took place on Wednesday 8 December at 5:07 a.m. when instantaneous wind power generation accounted for 81.9 % of instantaneous demand in the mainland electricity system. This new maximum value represented an increase of 6 percentage points compared to the previous maximum value recorded on Sunday 3 November 2019 at 5:20 a.m. The second occasion on which the record was broken in 2021 was on Tuesday 28 December at 3:03 a.m. with a percentage of instantaneous demand coverage with peninsular wind power generation of 83.6 %.
Wind power continues to be the most relevant renewable technology in the peninsular system, as in 2021 its production accounted for 49.5 % of total renewable energy.
The enormous variability of wind power generation is evident as can be seen in the graph shown below of maximum and minimum daily coverage of renewable hydro, wind and solar technologies. During 2021, daily wind power production had a share in the generation mix that ranged from a minimum of 2.8 % registered on 3 September to a maximum of 53.5 % recorded on 8 December.
Maximum, average and minimum daily coverage using wind
Solar photovoltaic generation reached all-time highs in 2021
The growth enabled solar photovoltaic production during 2021 to increase by 37.4 %, reaching 20,504 GWh, which represented a new record for annual generation. The annual share of this technology in the peninsular mix also registered a maximum value with a share of 8.3 %, representing a growth of 2.1 percentage points compared to the share of solar photovoltaic a year earlier.
During all the months of 2021, solar photovoltaic production was higher than in the previous year, reaching 67 % more in November than in the same month of 2020. Furthermore, during the month of July solar photovoltaic produced the highest monthly amount ever recorded with 2,565 GWh and reached the highest share in the generation mix since records began with a value of 12.1 %.
Regarding daily production, on Sunday 6 June 2021, solar photovoltaic production reached the highest share in the peninsular generation mix with 15.5 % and on Tuesday 29 June 2021, the maximum value for solar photovoltaic production reached an all-time high of 90,594 MWh.
In terms of hourly generation, on Friday 14 May 2021, between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. hourly solar photovoltaic energy broke the all-time record with a value of 9,351 MWh and on the same day, a new all-time high of instantaneous photovoltaic power generation in the peninsular electricity system was reached, with 9,337 MW recorded at 2:34 p.m.
Lastly, on Sunday 6 June 2021, between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. peninsular solar photovoltaic production accounted for 32.8 % of all peninsular generation and at 4:06 p.m. a new all-time high of instantaneous demand coverage using photovoltaic generation was reached in the peninsular electricity system with a value of 36.8 %.
With regard to solar thermal generation on the Spanish peninsula, in 2021, a total of 4,706 GWh was generated with this technology, 3.7 % more than the previous year, and it contributed 1.9 % to the total generation on the peninsula.
Maximum, average and minimum daily coverage using solar
Electricity generation
Total electricity generation
Electricity generation
Non renewable electricity generation