In the month of March, wind power energy was the technology with the greatest production of electricity. This is the first time that wind power energy has exceeded the rest of the technologies. The wind power farms covered 21% of the demand and set a monthly record with a generation figure of 4,738 GWh, a 5% increase on March 2010.

Demand coverage in March 2011

*International exchanges have a negative sign as the balance was exporter.

As a whole the group of renewable technologies covered 42.2% of the electricity demand in March, below the 48.5% registered in 2010, due to the fact that hydro-electric production last year was much higher. In the first quarter of 2011, the renewable technologies covered 40.5% of the demand, a little less than in the same period in 2010 when it reached 44%.

Additionally, in March, 57.9% of the electricity was generated by technologies which do not emit CO2.

Demand coverage from January to March 2011

*International exchanges have a negative sign as the balance was exporter.

Demand growth
The demand for electrical energy in March grew 0.1% with respect to the same month last year, finally reaching 22,799 GWh. Regarding gross demand ?which does not factor in the effects of seasonal and working patterns- it increased 0.2% with respect to March 2010.

Regarding for the first quarter of the year, the demand for electricity was 67,774 GWh, which was 1.1% above that of the previous year. Gross electricity consumption in the first quarter fell 0.5% compared to the same quarter in 2010.

Evolution of demand growth