The favourable windy weather conditions of the last few days and the recent installation of two new wind farms in Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario has allowed the Lanzarote-Fuerteventura system, which has been interconnected for more than 30 years, to break all the maximum records for wind energy and renewable production yesterday, 13 May 2021. These all-time highs were recorded and reported by the Electricity Control Centre of Red Eléctrica de España (REE) in the Canary Islands which is responsible for the real-time operation of the electricity system in the archipelago.

Thus, wind generated a total of 957.98 MWh of electricity throughout the day yesterday in the Lanzarote-Fuerteventura system, 7.7% more than the previous record, registered on 30 July 2019. This contributed to yesterday also being the day of highest production of all renewables which, with 1,056.74 MWh, reached a new historical maximum record beating the previous one, set on 12 August 2019, by 8.6%. During yesterday, a third of the electricity demand of both islands was covered with green energy.

The windy conditions in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura also enabled wind energy generation to reach its maximum level of instantaneous production at 11:33 a.m., when it registered 55 MW. Three minutes earlier, renewable technologies generated 4 MWh out of every 10 MWh produced and thus reached their highest share ever in the generation mix of the two islands.

The hourly period of highest wind energy production was between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 midday, when 49.04 MWh were registered, although it was at 11:00 p.m., when wind reached its highest share in the hourly generation mix, covering 33.9% of total electricity demand, although it was at 11:45 p.m. when wind registered the highest share ever in the generation mix contributing to cover 38.2% of the demand.

Eduardo Prieto, Manager of System Operations in the Canary Islands for Red Eléctrica de España, indicated that “The potential of renewable energy in the Canary Islands is indisputable, and as new wind and solar farms come online, the share of green production will increase as long as the conditions of the electricity system allow it to do so and the infrastructure foreseen in the planning is developed."

Gran Canaria is also going strong and keeping up with the pace of its neighbouring islands

Wind power on the island of Gran Canaria has also broken its records this week: on 12 May at 12:53 p.m., generation coming from wind power on the island produced 178.90 MW and a few minutes later, at 1:20 p.m., the combined generation of all its renewable energy technologies reached 203.44 MW, which helped cover almost half of the island's demand (46.9%), with a strong boost from wind energy, whose share in the mix at that time stood at 41.1%.

From the outset of the year, wind and renewable energy in Gran Canaria have beaten their instantaneous and hourly production records on more than five occasions each, mainly due to favourable weather conditions and the increase in the wind generation fleet with the installation of new installed power capacity on the island.

In the last five years, the electricity generation fleet on the Canary Islands has added nearly 300 MW of new renewable power capacity, which means that today more than 20% of the power capacity installed on the archipelago is green, with wind energy being the renewable technology with the greatest presence in the Islands.