Elsevier

Renewable Energy

Volume 86, February 2016, Pages 703-715
Renewable Energy

Spain's energy outlook: A review of PV potential and energy export

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.08.074Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Spain's energy outlook is presented, with special attention paid to PV energy.

  • Solar PV technology has the potential to meet Spain's future energy demand.

  • The solar potential in Spain makes PV energy a viable option for electricity export to surrounding countries.

  • Spain's government should take a serious look at the PV energy potential.

Abstract

Spain must reduce its energy consumption by 23% and achieve 100% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030. This paper presents the current energy scenario en Spain, and the outlooks for different renewable options, with special focus on photovoltaic (PV) solar energy. In 2012, Spain was the number two European country in terms of installed rewnewable energy power. Solar PV technology has the potential to meet Spain's future energy demand and its associated environmental challenges. This paper gives a review of solar energy economy at global scale for both PV and thermal power technologies. The Spanish energy scenario shows actual trends and progress made by solar power. Economic concepts of levelised cost of electricity and grid parity are presented. The financial analysis shows that PV electricity achieves grid parity at a plant profitability rate up to 7.26%.

Section snippets

Background information

Energy demand in Spain has followed a parallel growth of the economy. Fig. 1 shows the growth of primary energy demand in Spain. It highlights the impact of hydrocarbons in the Spanish energy supply, and also the fact that periods of high inflation affect investment in energy, especially nuclear [1]. The oil crisis in the seventies not only meant a return to coal and the problematic development of nuclear energy, but also resulted in high inflation and low economic growth. A strong growth in

Location and solar irradiation

The location considered in the case study is El Baico, Baza, Granada, Spain (37°31′22″ North, 2°45′42″ West, Elevation: 783 m above sea level). An accurate estimation of solar radiation is required to confidently predict photovoltaic system performance [57], [58]. The solar radiation database used to provide solar radiation data at the plant site is the Photovoltaic Geographical Information System – Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (PVGIS-CMSAF) [16], [17]. Data are

Conclusions

Spain has made efforts in supporting and developing solar energy for generation of electricity in a sustainable way to meet the energy future and its related environmental challenges. However it is actually facing destabilising and without precedent economic crisis, which have pushed government to block PV incentives and curb the growth of solar energy sector. Currently, PV solar energy is not a profitable sector by itself.

Spain can play a key role in the electricity market with one of the best

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in Chile by the projects CONICYT/FONDAP/15110019 (SERC-CHILE) and by the UAI Earth Research Center.

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