IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v68y2014icp264-269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solar electricity in a changing environment: The case of Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Urbina, Antonio

Abstract

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 2000GWh/month up to 6000GWh/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.

Suggested Citation

  • Urbina, Antonio, 2014. "Solar electricity in a changing environment: The case of Spain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 264-269.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:68:y:2014:i:c:p:264-269
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.02.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114000858
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2014.02.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenner, Steffen & Groba, Felix & Indvik, Joe, 2013. "Assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed-in tariffs in European Union countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 385-401.
    2. Solomon, A.A. & Faiman, D. & Meron, G., 2010. "An energy-based evaluation of the matching possibilities of very large photovoltaic plants to the electricity grid: Israel as a case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 5457-5468, October.
    3. Zahedi, A., 2011. "Maximizing solar PV energy penetration using energy storage technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 866-870, January.
    4. Steven Chu & Arun Majumdar, 2012. "Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future," Nature, Nature, vol. 488(7411), pages 294-303, August.
    5. Denholm, Paul & Margolis, Robert M., 2007. "Evaluating the limits of solar photovoltaics (PV) in traditional electric power systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2852-2861, May.
    6. Lund, Henrik, 2005. "Large-scale integration of wind power into different energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(13), pages 2402-2412.
    7. Denholm, Paul & Hand, Maureen, 2011. "Grid flexibility and storage required to achieve very high penetration of variable renewable electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1817-1830, March.
    8. Lund, H., 2006. "Large-scale integration of optimal combinations of PV, wind and wave power into the electricity supply," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 503-515.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lomas, J.C. & Muñoz-Cerón, E. & Nofuentes, G. & de la Casa, J., 2018. "Sale of profitable but unaffordable PV plants in Spain: Analysis of a real case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 279-294.
    2. Li, Xuping & Paster, Mark & Stubbins, James, 2015. "The dynamics of electricity grid operation with increasing renewables and the path toward maximum renewable deployment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1007-1015.
    3. Bianco, Vincenzo & Driha, Oana M. & Sevilla-Jiménez, Martín, 2019. "Effects of renewables deployment in the Spanish electricity generation sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 72-81.
    4. López Cascales, J.J. & Juan-Segovia, M.C. & Ibáñez Molina, J. & Sánchez Vera, J. & Vivo Vivo, P.M., 2015. "Environmental impact associated with the substitution of internal combustion vehicles by fuel cell vehicles refueled with hydrogen generated by electrolysis using the power grid. An estimation focused," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 79-85.
    5. Ribó-Pérez, David & Van der Weijde, Adriaan H. & Álvarez-Bel, Carlos, 2019. "Effects of self-generation in imperfectly competitive electricity markets: The case of Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Solomon, A.A. & Kammen, Daniel M. & Callaway, D., 2016. "Investigating the impact of wind–solar complementarities on energy storage requirement and the corresponding supply reliability criteria," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 130-145.
    2. Khalid, Muhammad & Ahmadi, Abdollah & Savkin, Andrey V. & Agelidis, Vassilios G., 2016. "Minimizing the energy cost for microgrids integrated with renewable energy resources and conventional generation using controlled battery energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 646-655.
    3. Zhang, Qi & Ishihara, Keiichi N. & Mclellan, Benjamin C. & Tezuka, Tetsuo, 2012. "Scenario analysis on future electricity supply and demand in Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 376-385.
    4. Cole, Wesley & Frew, Bethany & Gagnon, Pieter & Reimers, Andrew & Zuboy, Jarett & Margolis, Robert, 2018. "Envisioning a low-cost solar future: Exploring the potential impact of Achieving the SunShot 2030 targets for photovoltaics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 690-704.
    5. Orioli, Aldo & Di Gangi, Alessandra, 2016. "Five-years-long effects of the Italian policies for photovoltaics on the energy demand coverage of grid-connected PV systems installed in urban contexts," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 444-460.
    6. Arbabzadeh, Maryam & Johnson, Jeremiah X. & De Kleine, Robert & Keoleian, Gregory A., 2015. "Vanadium redox flow batteries to reach greenhouse gas emissions targets in an off-grid configuration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 397-408.
    7. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    8. Weber, Sylvain & Puddu, Stefano & Pacheco, Diana, 2017. "Move it! How an electric contest motivates households to shift their load profile," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 255-270.
    9. Nayak-Luke, Richard & Bañares-Alcántara, René & Collier, Sam, 2021. "Quantifying network flexibility requirements in terms of energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 869-882.
    10. Le, Ngoc Anh & Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 2011. "Integration of wind power into the British system in 2020," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5975-5983.
    11. Krajacic, Goran & Duic, Neven & Carvalho, Maria da Graça, 2011. "How to achieve a 100% RES electricity supply for Portugal?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 508-517, February.
    12. Zafirakis, D. & Chalvatzis, K. & Kaldellis, J.K., 2013. "“Socially just” support mechanisms for the promotion of renewable energy sources in Greece," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 478-493.
    13. Nunes, Pedro & Farias, Tiago & Brito, Miguel C., 2015. "Day charging electric vehicles with excess solar electricity for a sustainable energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 263-274.
    14. Solomon, A.A. & Faiman, D. & Meron, G., 2012. "Appropriate storage for high-penetration grid-connected photovoltaic plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 335-344.
    15. Maarten Wolsink, 2020. "Framing in Renewable Energy Policies: A Glossary," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-31, June.
    16. Ma, Tao & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Lund, Henrik & Yang, Hongxing & Lu, Lin, 2014. "An energy system model for Hong Kong in 2020," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 301-310.
    17. Tafarte, Philip & Das, Subhashree & Eichhorn, Marcus & Thrän, Daniela, 2014. "Small adaptations, big impacts: Options for an optimized mix of variable renewable energy sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 80-92.
    18. Lund, Henrik & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2012. "The role of Carbon Capture and Storage in a future sustainable energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 469-476.
    19. Byuk-Keun Jo & Gilsoo Jang, 2019. "An Evaluation of the Effect on the Expansion of Photovoltaic Power Generation According to Renewable Energy Certificates on Energy Storage Systems: A Case Study of the Korean Renewable Energy Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-17, August.
    20. Solomon, A.A. & Faiman, D. & Meron, G., 2012. "The role of conventional power plants in a grid fed mainly by PV and storage, and the largest shadow capacity requirement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 479-486.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:68:y:2014:i:c:p:264-269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.