Low-carbon sources accounted for two-thirds of total power generation in Spain, two-thirds of which were from renewable sources and the remainder from nuclear power. The share of renewable sources in total power generation increased significantly in 2020 (by 7 percentage points), as electricity demand decreased and generation from hydropower increased by almost the same amount as wind and solar PV combined. This resulted in a very large drop of the CO2 intensity per unit of power generated from 2019 to 2020 and an overall decrease of around 36% over 2010‑2020.
Several policies and targets at European and national level underpin the goal to achieve the European Union’s net zero ambition by 2050 (EC, 2019) – the main overarching ones include: targets for 2030 (EC, 2020), the REPowerEU (EC, 2022) measures, the provisions of the national recovery and resilience plan (MINCOTUR, 2021), and the national energy plan (MITECO, 2020b). Achieving greater electrification in Spain requires stepping up considerably the efforts for the electrification of all end uses, strongly accelerating the deployment of EVs in transport and exploiting the vast potential available in each sector (Table 5.14.A). An increased effort will need to be put in place for the decarbonisation of power generation in the short term to 2030, and over the following decades.