Spanish Wind Turbines. Source: New York Times.
In recent years, Spain has become a global leader in using wind power as a form of renewable energy. In 2021, wind became accountable for over 23 percent of Spanish power production, overtaking nuclear energy and becoming Spain’s largest source of energy. In the same year, wind power only drove 14.3 percent of power in the European Union. This was the second year that wind was the main source of Spain's power; back in 2013, the Garoña nuclear plant in the city of Burgos closed, and wind power became the predominant source of energy that year. Spain’s success with wind energy is partly due to the fact that Spain is a country that has thousands of miles of coastline—wind coming off the ocean is readily available to power Spain’s turbines.
Another reason for Spain’s increased use of wind power has been the increasing gas prices worldwide, which have created an incentive to move away from unrenewable power sources. However, combined cycle power plants, which use gas and cogeneration—a technology that sometimes uses gas—still account for around 27 percent of energy generation in Spain.
A decade ago, renewable energy sources accounted for 30 percent of Spain’s energy. Now, renewable energy accounts for 47 percent, a number that will continue to rise. The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, released by the Spanish government, claimed that the capacity of wind turbines will double between 2022 and 2030. According to the plan, solar power will increase greatly as well, but not nearly as much as wind power, and nuclear energy will drop by 50 percent. Spain, geographically, has the sun and wind to support increased investments in green energy technologies. The only threat to this increased use of wind and sun power is the growing protest in some regions against the use of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. For example, the group Aliente, which is an alliance that groups environmentalists, says that the massive wind turbines and other renewable energy developments use land, destroy the landscape, and lead to loss of biodiversity. A political group, Teruel Existe, claims that rural areas are being overrun by the installation of large-scale wind and sun power infrastructure. Some groups have even claimed the process of rural wind power development a type of “colonialism.”
In addition, Spain is looking to create offshore wind farms in the ocean. The Spanish government has recently released Spain’s first offshore wind roadmap. Right now, the Canary Islands are the only Spanish region with offshore wind energy. Spain currently has 27 gigawatts of wind energy capacity, and looks to add 3 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. In addition, allocated offshore wind regions can be used for defense, shipping, research, and fishing. However, ports are crucial for offshore wind farm construction and maintenance, and in order for Spain’s offshore wind ambitions to be realized, Spain would need to construct heavy loading ports.
Spain is home to some of the world’s largest turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers, who lead global efforts to reduce the weight of wind turbines while increasing their efficiency. Wind power continues to become cheaper to produce, and countries and communities around the world are turning to wind energy to reduce their dependence on foreign fuel and lower their contribution to global warming.