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In the south-western corner of Europe, businesses and households are powered by some of the cleanest electricity on the planet thanks to the region’s wind and solar boom over the past decade.
Renewables and nuclear accounted for 82% of the electricity generated in Spain and Portugal in 2024, according to data collated by research group Ember.
The two countries trade power with each other, but jointly operate somewhat as an “energy island” since they have limited interconnection capacity with the rest of Europe (that’s partly because the Pyrenees mountains make linkages difficult).
Wind and solar comprised nearly half (46.4%) of the combined mix in 2024, while all renewables made up 63.9% of the total and Spain’s nuclear plants another 17.9%. All fossil fuels accounted for just 18.1% of the region’s electrical output.
For context, none of the world’s largest economies come close to matching the Iberian Peninsula’s integration of variable renewable technologies (wind and solar). And if the peninsula was a single country, it would rank as the world’s 12th-largest economy, ahead of Australia and Mexico (and the state of New York). Spain was also the fastest-growing advanced economy on the planet in 2024.
Meanwhile, households in Spain and Portugal pay 16% less for their electricity than the EU average, according to the latest data from the bloc’s stats office.
Leading the way: Portugal, which shut its last coal-fired power plant in 2021, is a global frontrunner in the transition to 100% renewables.
Domestic power plants that run on fossil fuels covered just 10% of the country’s electricity needs in 2024, according to data provided by grid operator REN. The rest of the country’s electricity came from local renewable energy facilities and Spain.
According to modelling by the International Energy Agency, Portugal will likely source more than 90% of its power from domestic renewables by 2030, a milestone that’ll be shared by the likes of Denmark and Chile.
In Spain, meanwhile, renewables accounted for 60.2% of power output in 2024 while nuclear made up 20.8% of the mix and fossil fuels 19%.
The country is targeting 81% renewable electricity by 2030, with 62GW of wind capacity, 76GW of solar PV, and 22.5GW of storage. Over the long term, Spain wants to get to circa 100% renewable power.
Risk management group DNV said in a recent report the country will have to strengthen its policies to achieve those targets.
Further, electricity’s share of Spain’s total energy consumption will probably only get to 26% by 2030, up from 22% in 2023, according to DNV’s projections. That’s only slightly ahead of the global average, and well behind electrification-leader China.
