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Past three months saw windfarms produce more electricity than any
other source for first time, trade body says
Over the last three months wind farms produced more electricity than
any other power source in Spain for the first time ever, an industry
group has said.
The country delivered over six terawatt hours of electricity from wind
farms during January, according to data from grid operator Red
Electrica de Espana, the Spanish Wind Energy Association said in a
statement.
"Since November 1, wind has been the top technology in the electrical
system," the group said in a blog posting. "The last time any
technology exceeded six terawatt-hours of monthly generation was in
2010, when it was combined-cycle gas turbines."
The performance means wind energy exceeded output from both nuclear
and coal-fired power stations and represents more than a quarter of
Spain's total power generation.
Spain has been looking to boost its wind power capacity as part of the
government's efforts to cut carbon emissions.
The news came in the same week as German wind energy industry
association BWE said it expects developers to add between 3GW and
3.5GW of capacity this year, far outstripping the 2.4GW installed in
2012.
The surge in new capacity will be largely driven by new offshore wind
farms coming online and will mean the country remains on track to meet
its goal of generating around 40 per cent of its electricity form
renewables by 2020, up from about 25 per cent currently.