Spain has about 3,000 hours of sunlight per year, which makes it one of the sunniest countries in Europe and, therefore, one of the territories with the greatest solar resource for producing electricity. Photovoltaic energy is a type of renewable energy whose share in the power generation fleet nationwide has tripled in just five years, already surpassing the level of Spain’s installed hydroelectric power capacity and becoming the third technology in the generation mix with more MW of installed capacity: 17,191 MW.

In the last five years, solar photovoltaic technology has climbed four positions in Spain’s ranking of available renewable energy generation capacity, adding more than 12,400 new MW of installed power capacity

Furthermore, the effects of the increase in installed solar power capacity, driven by the green transition, have enabled 2022 to be the year in which this technology has registered the highest levels of solar energy production ever since records began in Spain, already accounting for more than 22,200 GWh, according to data available until September.

In addition, solar photovoltaic, which is responsible for almost 11% of the electricity generated in Spain so far in 2022, has already integrated 6% more GWh into the grid than in the whole of 2021.

A sunny May from an energy standpoint

Earlier this year, on 1 May at 3:41 p.m., solar photovoltaic energy also set an all-time high on the mainland, when it covered more than half (54.3%) of the instantaneous electricity demand.

Subsequently, the highest share of photovoltaic energy generation in Spain was registered on 26 May, making it also the day with the most GWh generated nationwide, with a total of 153 GWh, i.e., almost 20% of the total energy generated on this day; a day in which 60.8% of the electricity generated came from renewable sources.