Spain meets European targets for renewables and energy efficiency in 2020

Spain had to cover 20% of the final energy demand with renewables and it has comfortably surpassed this, reaching 21.2%, both due to the increase in clean energy production and the reduction in demand caused by the health crisis.

In the case of energy efficiency, the community objective of 20% has also been far exceeded, achieving 35.4%.

The following table summarises the sectoral values ​​of renewable energy and energy efficiency achieved in 2020, together with the European objectives committed in each case:

Growth path in renewables

By 2020, the percentage of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption is 21.22%, exceeding the 20% target established for Spain in the Renewables Directive. The following graph shows how during the past decade the country has exceeded the path of penetration foreseen by community regulations.

The percentage of renewable electricity has increased from 37.13% to 42.94%. Among the factors that have contributed to this increase, it is worth highlighting the notable growth of 10.1% in generation with renewables compared to the previous year, which has been combined with the decrease in gross demand of 4.81%. These results consolidate the decarbonisation path of the electricity generation sector, which for the second year in a row has broken emissions reduction records.

The percentage of renewables in final energy consumption in transportation increased from 7.61% to 9.54%. This growth was contributed by the drop in demand, as well as by the policy to promote biofuels in road transport, which has been a boost to the increase of this objective in recent years.

The percentage of renewables corresponding to the production of heat has increased from 17.20% to 17.97%, mainly due to the reduction in demand.

Energy efficiency target

The energy efficiency objectives committed by Spain to the European Union are established by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030, both in primary energy (PEC) and in final energy (FEC), minus non-energy uses .

For the year 2020, the percentage of reduction of primary energy (PEC) reached 35.4%, comfortably exceeding the objective committed by Spain, of 20%, especially due to the lower economic activity derived from the pandemic.

Primary energy consumption in Spain during 2020 was 110,847 ktoe, which represented a reduction of 12.0% compared to 2019. Final energy consumption, meanwhile, experienced a decrease of 13.4% compared to 2019 , up to a total of 79,436 ktoe.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) presented on December 7 to EUROSTAT the information regarding the renewable objective and the transport objective, both established in the Renewables Directive.

The calculation of the energy efficiency objectives and the energy balance of Spain for 2020 are made from the information contained in the annual questionnaires on solid fossil fuels and manufactured gases, nuclear energy, natural gas, electricity and heat, oil and petroleum products , renewable energy and energy from waste, sent to EUROSTAT and the International Energy Agency on November 25.