Spain only gets about 9% of energy from renewables on average, which is much less than a lot of other countries. The 53% number is very deceptive IMHO, and really shows that you can't count on wind for reliable energy.
Oh wow. I was just lurking here, and I see my own blog mentioned!
I hate to be an exasperating pedant, but I am, and I must annoy you:
"Spain only gets about 9% of energy from renewables on average,"
It's actually 9% of electricity from wind power, which is a very different statistic. As other commenters point out here, actually ~25% of Spanish electricity is renewable [1]; most of the difference is hydropower, which is also renewable. And then the proportion of energy is different yet, since most energy consumption is in forms that are not electric: i.e. natural gas heating, petrol fuel. See example energy flowcharts here [2].
Not debunking at all, the first words in the article were:
"Ok, not all the time, but last weekend at 5:50am on Sunday morning (8th Nov) Spain set a new record, hitting 53.7%"
Which instantly made it clear that this was an exception. I don't think anybody is suggesting that you can provide all of your power requirements from Wind, but - clearly, Wind can be an important part of your renewable portfolio in some cases. Obviously Solar, GeoThermal, Hydroelectric, Conservation, Efficiency all have important roles to play as well.
Some people do, not by living in perpetually windy environments but by reducing consumption and using stored energy supply (eg batteries but pumping water to provide hydroelectric which can be used at any time is also a possibility).
Oh no, it is the average value. You don't want to know the lowest value. Or if you do, go to the Spanish utility's site and browse statistics for the summer months, when wind is usually slower:
You're right. Anyway, and what I mean, is that the average of energy provided with enough wind is pretty high. The average isn't that low for the 95th percentile (and the bottleneck is still the wind)
http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2009/11/spanish-wind-power-exposed...
Spain only gets about 9% of energy from renewables on average, which is much less than a lot of other countries. The 53% number is very deceptive IMHO, and really shows that you can't count on wind for reliable energy.