Spain wind power expansion faces technical hurdles

Spain’s ambitious plans to expand wind power as part of its renewable energy drive will bring environmental and economic benefits but faces technical problems, an industry expert said on Thursday.

Spain’s wind parks currently have an installed capacity of some 15,000 megawatts and the government wants to see 20,000 MW in place by 2010 and 30,000 MW by 2030.
Spain’s wind power manufacturers say they can expand capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020.

But national grid operator REE currently limits wind parks to supplying 30 percent of Spain’s energy demand, to protect power network from sudden drops in power if the wind falters.

“The REE limit does imply that there will be downtime for wind parks if we reach our targets for installed capacity,” Carmen Canovas, head of renewable energy development at utility Endesa, told an energy conference in Barcelona.

Reuters