| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300131 | Renewable Energy | 2014 | 6 Pages |
•Evolution of the Spanish electricity mix is analysed for the past 23 years.•Solar electricity reached 15% of power generation in August 2013.•Annual capacity factor of solar photovoltaic at national level is above 20%.•Wind and solar are surpassing fossil-fuel technology (gas) in capacity factor.
In Spain, solar electricity (photovoltaic and thermoelectric) has reached a stable annual capacity factor above 20% since 2009; while wind achieved 23% since more than 10 years ago. This is the demonstration of an ongoing transition towards a more sustainable energy mix, further corroborated by the reduction of the capacity factor of gas-fired technology, which has seen a decline to values lower than 10% after an initial promising rise; this is a very low value for a fossil-fuel technology. Additionally, hydro installed capacity, which has been stable for the past 20 years, have demonstrated that can be used as a back-up power source in combination with solar and wind electricity, and it is capable of producing energy peaks that may increase from a stable base of 2000 GWh/month up to 6000 GWh/month and therefore meet demand at some particular times when solar and wind are generating less electricity without the need of installing new additional capacity at national level.
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