Last year Spain installed 1,609.11 wind MW making the accumulated capacity 16,740.32 MW, according to the Spanish Wind Energy Association´s Wind Observatory, that includes data given by the owner companies and manufacturers and that are contrasted with public organisms. This growth is the expected one by the sector after a special year that was 2007, with an increase of 3,500 MW, and where companies made an effort to start up the greatest number of wind farms so they could adhere to the previous support system. The actual 16,740 MW consolidate Spain as the third country in the world in terms of installed capacity and will allow the 2010 objective of 20,155 MW of the Renewable Energies Plan 2005-2010 to be reached.
As it was expected, the growth of the Spanish wind energy capacity has gone accordingly with the previous years, with an increase of 1,609.11 MW that brings the total capacity of working wind farms to 16,740.32 MW, which means that during the last five years, 10,532 MW have been installed in Spain, according to data from the Spanish Wind Energy Association’s Wind Observatory. As it was expected, the growth has been less than the 2007 one, that was of 3,505 MW, a record year encouraged by the new RD 661 that accelerated the construction of all projects before the approval of a new norm, as the farms that were working before the January 1 2008 would receive until December 21 2012 better conditions in terms of their support system.
AEE, on the other hand, believe that the installed 1.609 MW in 2008 confirm the strength of the sector and that this growth will be kept or increase in the next two years, reaching the wind 20,155 MW fixed as the objective according to the Renewable Energies Plan 2005-2010.
Graph 1. Annual evolution and installed wind energy capacity. 1997-2008
The growth of 1,609 MW is an increase of a 10.63 per cent, but it is in the third position in absolute terms in the short history of wind energy in Spain, as it is only overtaken by the 2007 (3,505 MW and a 30%) and 2004 (2,297.51 MW and a 37%) ones.
The regions´ breakdown shows that Castilla-La Mancha keeps its leadership with 3,415.61 MW (273.25 new MW in 2008), but the biggest growth in absolute terms is the Castilla y León one with 518.69 MW that put the region in second place with 3,334.04 MW ahead of Galicia —that was in first position in the regions´ ranking up to two years ago— with 3,145.24 MW.
In percentages, the biggest growth has been the Comunidad Valenciana one with a 27.66% that with 153.90 MW installed in 2008 reaches 710.34 MW, followed by Andalucia with a growth of a 24.17 % with 349.45 new MW reaching a total of 1,794.99 MW and places itself as the fourth region ahead of Aragon that now has 1,749.31 MW.
Table 1. Capacity per region 2007-2008
