Instructor: Dr.

Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

EE596 Fall 2015 - Assignment # 2 - Renewable Energy

REPORT 1
Summarize in a report your understanding of the growth of solar (residential/rooftop vs utility), wind
(onshore vs offshore), geothermal and biomass. If you look at the table Yearly US Renewable Electricity
Production (billion kWh) by Source where (what 2 sources) do you see the largest growth over the last
decade.
Where does your home-state stand wrt electricity from renewables.
For both groups (in US and Europe/elsewhere), look carefully at organizations related to these sources,
for example, http://www.irena.org/, http://www.wcre.de/, http://www.wwindea.org/,
http://www.awea.org/index.aspx , http://www.seia.org/, etc. Include in your report a summary of the
scope of activities, policy related work that these organizations/agencies are involved in, with particular
emphasis on any agencies that are in your country (or state) of origin.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Contenido
Renewable energy in Spain ........................................................................................................................... 3
Solar .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Windpower ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Geothermal ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Biomass ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Last Decade Evolution ............................................................................................................................... 7
Covered demand ................................................................................................................................... 7
Renewables in Navarre ............................................................................................................................. 9
Organizations ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Other organizations ................................................................................................................................ 10
References: ................................................................................................................................................. 11

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Renewable energy in Spain

Traditionally renewables energies in Spain have had a small weight in relation with the primary
energy demand and electric generation. Nevertheless in the XX century have been powered by the
different governments mainly with the Plan de Fomento de las Energas Renovables 2000-2010 (Plan
to Promote Renewable Energies 2000-2010) aimed at achieving 30% of electricity from renewable
sources.
This objective was achieved for electricity in 2010 with a 35% of the electric demand covered
with renewable sources.
Due to these politics Spain has achieved a great develop of renewable energies taking a leading
role in the global production of energy covering a 42.8% of the total production (42.2 % in 2013)

Figure 1 - Annual Spanish demand coverage Source: REE

Hydraulics: 15.5 %
Wind power: 20.3%
PV: 3.1%
Solar thermal: 2.0 %
Renewable thermal: 1.9%

Should be highlighted the important role of wind power with a contribution of 20.3%, only
behind Nuclear energy, achieving the first place in some months as January, February, November
and December.
Furthermore Spain have achieved the fifth place in Renewable Power Capacities in the whole
world as can be seen in the next figure:

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Figure 2 - Renewable power capacities in World 2013 Source: REN21

Solar
Spain solar energy is a renewable source of electricity which is in an advanced stage of
development, installation and use, could me mainly divided in PV, Solar thermal and residential.
Spain is one of the countries with more sunshine hours which joined with the European
liabilities about renewables have contributed to the solar energy development.
In 2005 Spain was the first country to require the installation of solar panels in new buildings
and the second country to require the installation of solar hot water (first Israel).
Nowadays PV and Solar Thermal have a very similar presence in the Spanish energy mix, but in the last
years the development of Solar Thermal has been huge while the development of PV has stopped. As
shown in figure 3 Spain is one of the TOP 10 countries in PV capacity but also could be checked that its
development is almost zero.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Figure 3 - Solar PV Capacity and Additions Source: REN21

In the other hand Spain is leader in CSP (concentrating solar thermal power) with 2.3 GW of CSP,
despite the fact that it have not added any capacity in 2014.

Figure 4 CSP Source: REN21

Note that the Spanish market follows policy changes implemented in recent years which it has
caused more capacity is not added.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Finally solar thermal technologies contribute to hot water and cooling and heating spaces, and
in that case Spain is one of the TOP 12 countries for Capacity Added.

Figure 5 - TOP 12 Capacity added, hot water, cooling and heating spaces Source: REN21

Make sense that Spain appear as one of the top countries relating to solar energy due to its
sunshine hours and the European politics as have been said.

Windpower
Spain is the fouth country in installed Windpower but again and as it happened with solar power
the last year no power have been added.

Figure 6 - Total and added Windpower Source: REN21

Furthermore one Spanish company called Gamesa appear as one of the top 10 turbine
manufacturers with a 4.5%.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Although offshore technology is probably the future of wind power, nowadays it is around 8.5
GW which is nothing against onshore production. The vast majority of offshore has been added in
Europe and some of the most important companies around the world are creating joint ventures to
develop that technology being that after a period of rising costs due to new machines there is evidence
that costs are coming down.
In Spain there are no offshore technology currently installed but there are some places with a
really great potential.

Geothermal
In Spain there are no geothermal installation currently, nertheless it exists an investigation
project aimed to develop geothermal plants in the next years.

Biomass
Biomass is one of the renewable with major growth of the world, which allows to use nature
wastes that cannot be used with another purpose.
Spain is the sixth country in the ranking of the EU having 22 biomass power plants with a power
around 1GW, which means a 2% of the Spanish energy mix, generating 44 thousand jobs only behind
Germany in the EU. However Spain is not one of the top world countries in this technology.

Last Decade Evolution

Covered demand

Figure 7 - 2006-2010 Covered demand - Source: REE

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Figure 8 - 2010-2014 Covered demand - Source: REE

In the next diagram could be seen the evolution of the most important renewable energies in
Spain, as have been said, wind power is the most important one and its evolution also reflects that.
Anyway should be highlighted the evolution of solar energy, both PV and thermal, considering that the
last years the development of PV has stopped and Spain is mainly developing Solar thermal.

Renewables evolution
60000
50000

40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Hydraulic

Wind Power
2006

PV
2010

Solar thermal

Biomass

2014

Figure 9 - Renewables evolution - (graphics processed with data obtained from REN21)

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Renewables in Navarre
Energy (GWh)

Navarre

Hydraulic

Wind
power

Solar
Thermal

PV

Biomass

Total
Renewable

Total
demand

784

2665

295

304

4037

4720

85.53%

As can be seen in the previous chart my province produces the 85.53% of the energy that
consumes, mainly produced with wind power and hydraulic.
Being a province of the north of Spain it bases its generation on wind unlike others which do it in
solar energy.

Organizations
SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association)

Seia is aimed to protect and expand all solar technologies around the US. It works with 100
member companies to achieve the use of clean and affordable solar power in America.

AWEA (American Wind Energy Association)

It is the national trade association for the U.S wind industry, it promotes wind energy as a clean
source of energy for Americans.

WWEA (World Wind Energy Association)

It is an international non-profit organization with more than 600 member in 100 countries.
Its goal is to promote wind power in order to applicate a new energy system based on
renewable energies.

WCRE (World Council of Renewable Energy)

It is a global operating independen organization which want to be the voice of renewable

energy.

IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency)

It seeks to make an impact in the world of renewable energy from a clear and independent
position.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

Other organizations
REN21 (WORLD)

REN21 is the global renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network that connects a wide
range of key actors. REN21s goal is to facilitate knowledge exchange, policy development and
joint action towards a rapid global transition to renewable energy.
REN21 should be highlighted as it is a source of accurate information on renewable energies.
Most of the data that has been used in this report has been taken from REN21 publications.

CENER (SPAIN)

The National Renewable Energy Centre (CENER) is a specialized technology center in applied
research and development as well as in the promotion of renewable energy.
Cener focus its work around three areas:
o

Development of technology through R&D&I projects, promoting the generation,

acquisition and dissemination of knowledge for the industrial sector.

Highly skilled technical assistance and services for component testing and certification.

Drafting of reports as well as technical and economic feasibility studies.

IDAE (The Institute for Diversification and Saving of Energy - SPAIN)

Contribute to achieving the objectives that have acquired our country in terms of improving
energy efficiency, renewable energy and other low carbon technologies is the strategic
framework of their activity.

Instructor: Dr. Sridhar Seshagiri

Iigo Larrea

References:
http://www.ren21.net/ren21-10-year-report/

http://www.ren21.net/renewables-2014-global-status-report-full/

http://www.ree.es/es/publicaciones/sistema-electrico-espanol/informe-anual/informe-del-sistemaelectrico-espanol-2014

http://www.ree.es/es/publicaciones/2013/07/informe-del-sistema-electrico-espanol-2010

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Spain

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energ%C3%ADa_renovable_en_Espa%C3%B1a

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources

http://www.idae.es/index.php/relmenu.30/relcategoria.101/idpag.11/mod.pags/mem.detalle

http://www.ren21.net/about-ren21/

http://www.cener.com/es/que_es/index.asp