November has seen nine consecutive days in which wind has been the main contributor to the Spanish generation mix, accounting for more than a third of daily production, a figure that has raised the share of renewable energy to record levels.
Spain experienced a historic period for wind power technology between 15 and 23 November, with wind gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour, which enabled this technology to take full advantage of its potential reaching its highest-ever levels of electricity production. In fact, nearly 80% of the hours during this nine-day period were covered using renewable energy generation, with the 19th of November, between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., being the most prolific hour for renewables as a whole, with an overall hourly share of 71.2%.
In these nine golden days for wind power, this technology alone generated four out of every ten GWh produced, although on two of these days it was responsible for half of the daily production and, on Monday 21 November, it reached the largest share of the generation mix ever recorded by Red Eléctrica: with 53% of the total.
In the last five years, the Spanish power generation fleet has incorporated more than 6,000 new MW of installed wind power capacity. Thus, wind power production capacity, which currently stands at 29,566 MW, represents a quarter of the total installed power capacity in Spain.
In fact, at 8:55 p.m. on 21 November, wind turbines were used to maximise the potential wind energy generation to produce 20,607 MW of instantaneous power, setting a new all-time record. More than two-thirds of the installed wind power capacity nationwide was involved in setting this record.