Solar photovoltaics (PV) provided 2.5% of Spain's electricity generation with concentrating solar power (CSP) providing another 1.1% in November 2013, according to grid operator REE.
These figures show PV and CSP supplementing Spanish electricity generation even in the winter months. Over the first 11 months of the year, Spain's PV and CSP plants together represented 5.1% of electricity generation, with all renewables together at 43% of generation.
Critics of wind and solar have stated concerns over the seasonal variability of these forms of generation. However, similar to other winter months, Spanish PV and CSP production was still relatively strong in November 2013 despite the nation's location between the 36th and 44th parallels.
Spain is at the same longitude as much of the United States and Japan, and slightly north of the center of China. These are the three largest PV markets in 2013.
Spain: High penetrations of wind and solar
The nation has also shown that it is possible to integrate large amounts of wind and solar even with a relatively isolated grid. In the first twelve months of 2013 wind provided 21% of Spanish electricity, meaning that wind and solar together have produced more than a quarter of the nation's electricity over the full year to date.
Spain has one of the highest percentages of wind generation of any nation in the world, and the third-highest portion of solar electric generation of any large nation, after Germany and Italy.