The Spanish government will increase the country’s wind-power target for 2010 to 20,000 megawatts, up 54 percent from the existing target of 13,000 MW, a government source said on Tuesday.
Spain ranks third in the world behind Germany and the United States with an installed wind power capacity of 6,200 MW, and the new goal aims to reduce Spain’s dependency on imported fuel.
The new target comes as part of an Industry Ministry revision of the country’s renewable energy strategy that will be announced before the end of the year, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We will increase the target to 20,000 megawatts,” the source said, adding that the plan could call for changes in the premium that wind-power producers charge.
Among the potential beneficiaries could be Spanish wind-power firm Gamesa, the world’s fourth-largest producer of wind turbines, and power utility Iberdrola, the world’s second-largest producer of renewable energy.
Javier Garcia Breva, head of the state body that promotes renewable energy, told Reuters in July that Spain was capable of reaching the 20,000 MW figure as a way to reduce its dependence on oil imports and its emissions of carbon dioxide.
“It’s possible. It’s an aim that can be reached simply by improving technology and the regulation of the wind parks,” Garcia Breva told Reuters.
Spain’s interest in nonpolluting renewable energy is linked to its dependence on energy imports, which make up almost 80 percent of consumption.
The country’s robust economic growth has increased power demand, pushing carbon dioxide emissions further above Spain’s commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to increase emissions by no more than 15 percent compared with 1990 levels.
Emissions are now 40 percent above 1990 levels.