Contribution of renewable energy sources to electricity production in the La Rioja Autonomous Community, Spain. A review

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The implementation of the emissions market should imbue renewable energies with a greater degree of competitiveness regarding conventional generation. In order to comply with the Kyoto protocol, utilities are going to begin to factor in the cost of CO2 (environmental costs) in their overall generating costs, whereby there will be an increase in the marginal prices of the electricity pool. This article reviews the progress made in the La Rioja Autonomous Community (LRAC) in terms of the introduction of renewable energy technologies since 1996, where renewable energy represents approximately only 10% of the final energy consumption of the LRAC. Nonetheless, the expected exploitation of renewable energies and the recent implementation of a combined cycle facility mean that the electricity scenario in La Rioja will undergo spectacular change over the coming years: we examine the possibility of meeting a target of practical electrical self-sufficiency by 2010. In 2004, power consumption amounted to 1494 GWh, with an installed power of 1029.0 MW of electricity. By 2010, the Arrúbal combined cycle facility will produce around 9600 GWh/year, thereby providing a power generation output in La Rioja of close to 2044.7 MW, which will involve almost doubling the present output, and multiplying by 8.9 that recorded in this Autonomous Community in 2001. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.