Spain Powered 53% By Wind Energy

Ever since Don Quixote battled the windmills in La Mancha he imagined were giants, Spain has- in my mind at least - been inextricably linked to the idea of wind power.

How fabulous then to learn that a few days ago (Sunday 8th November, to be precise) a staggering 53% of Spain's entire electricity needs were met by the power produced by wind turbines.

The Spanish Wind Energy Association, La Asociacion Empresarial Eolica (AEE), said this new renewable record was based on the production of about about 10,170 megawatts (MW) of clean energy which was over half the national demand between 3am and 8.30 (which ranged from 21,700 MW to 19,700 MW).

What's more - according to SustainableBusiness.com - "in the first nine days of November, wind energy was the primary generation technology of the Spanish electrical grid, reaching 1,770,486 MWh, ahead of the combined cycle with 1,369,955 MWh and the nuclear power with 1,223,350 MWh."

It's a stunning achievement and a v. useful reminder ahead of the Copenhagen summit of how much demand can be met by renewables if we just go ahead and build the damn things (and not raise objections because wind farms might spoil our views of a countryside that'll end up flooded or scorched out of recognition if we don't do something about climate change).

Meanwhile, domestically it's great to see that UK wind farm projects have just got an extra £700m ($1.2bn USD) in funding from banks (some of them, like RBS, government owned now of course). Apparently this funding figure will be matched by the European Investment Bank

[Spotted on SustainableBusiness.com]

PS.
Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless."

"What giants?" asked Sancho Panza.

"Those you see over there," replied his master, "with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length."

"Take care, sir," cried Sancho. "Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone."

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