Spain has had a democratic socialist government since 2018, and has now fully transitioned to renewable energy, showing what's possible when the political will exists.
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Spain has had a democratic socialist government since 2018, and has now fully transitioned to renewable energy, showing what's possible when the political will exists.
"Spain’s grid ran entirely on renewable energy for the first time on April 16, with wind, solar, and hydro meeting all peninsular electricity demand during a weekday. Five days later, solar set a new record, generating 20,120 MW of instantaneous power – covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix."
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Spain has had a democratic socialist government since 2018, and has now fully transitioned to renewable energy, showing what's possible when the political will exists.
"Spain’s grid ran entirely on renewable energy for the first time on April 16, with wind, solar, and hydro meeting all peninsular electricity demand during a weekday. Five days later, solar set a new record, generating 20,120 MW of instantaneous power – covering 78.6% of demand and 61.5% of the grid mix."
So. I mean. I hate to be the party pooper and I'm extremely worried about climate change and renewables definitely help, AND considering the overall political climate I guess our liberal/center-center|left gov might look like something. But as a spanish subject I guess it falls on me to try and qualify this news a bit. If I may?
As you can see the generation mix is quite green indeed, but there's still a little stretch to go, and that's more because of real technical constraints than for lack of installed power. In fact some renewable generation is being sporadically disconnected from the grid (curtailment) because the storage and export capacity is insufficient and likely to remain so. Compounding this (relative) problem, the free market approach means more generation is still being deployed at scale, by for-profit utility corporations, mind you, not the government, so there's a bit of "second PV bubble" talk going around.
Interestingly, I understand a few more countries might be at or near this transition point. Denmark comes to mind.
Finally, as you know the usual caveats apply of electricity still being a fraction of primary energy use, and heating, industry and transportation lagging in decarbonization efforts.
Cheers!
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So. I mean. I hate to be the party pooper and I'm extremely worried about climate change and renewables definitely help, AND considering the overall political climate I guess our liberal/center-center|left gov might look like something. But as a spanish subject I guess it falls on me to try and qualify this news a bit. If I may?
As you can see the generation mix is quite green indeed, but there's still a little stretch to go, and that's more because of real technical constraints than for lack of installed power. In fact some renewable generation is being sporadically disconnected from the grid (curtailment) because the storage and export capacity is insufficient and likely to remain so. Compounding this (relative) problem, the free market approach means more generation is still being deployed at scale, by for-profit utility corporations, mind you, not the government, so there's a bit of "second PV bubble" talk going around.
Interestingly, I understand a few more countries might be at or near this transition point. Denmark comes to mind.
Finally, as you know the usual caveats apply of electricity still being a fraction of primary energy use, and heating, industry and transportation lagging in decarbonization efforts.
Cheers!
@esetrapi @ApostateEnglishman I have a pet peeve. I hate the attitude of "pooping on good news because its not good enough" that is so popular on the fediverse.
But... You did it just right. You offered great context without invalidating the progress. Thanks! -
S suneauken@mastodon.world shared this topic
