Spanish Energy Roadmap to 2020: Socioeconomic implications of renewable targets

The European Union has established challenging targets for the share of renewable energies in the energy supply to be achieved by 2020; for Spain, 20percent of the final energy consumption must be from renewable sources at such time. The aim of this paper is the analysis of the consequences for the electricity sector (in terms of excess cost of electricity, investment requirements, land occupation, CO2 emissions and overcapacity of conventional power)of several possibilities (scenarios)to comply with the desired targets. The technical potential and the cost of electricity from renewable sources have been estimated in previous, detailed studies by the present authors, using a methodology based on GIS (Geographical Information System)and very high resolution meteorological data. As a result, depending on the scenario, the attainment of the targets will require a renewable generation of 140 TWh to 204 TWh, a land occupation of 10 000 to 20 000 km2 and will lead to an increase in the cost of electricity between 19 to 37percent with respect to 2007.