At peak, Spain gets 53% of its energy from wind

... last weekend at 5:50am on Sunday morning. Still impressive though.

Spain receives colossal amounts of wind energy from the Sahara. IIRC winds have been known to continue without a break for weeks, if not months.

When you have 9 million square kilometres to your south and an oceanic climate to your north, you tend to get a lot of wind.

The reason the UK gets so little wind in comparison is that the prevailing wind comes directly from Spain, just a lot later. Although anyone who's spent a few years in the UK can testify, you either have a weak Saharan wind or a strong Siberian wind.

The UK's best potential for renewable energy is if we ever get the technology to tap the gulf stream, as it wraps around the UK meaning it likely won't have to disrupt any shipping lanes. As the Gulf stream holds over 100 times the energy used yearly by the whole world, it could certainly be marginally tapped without any effect on the circulation. By marginally I mean we could likely supply the present day world without consequence.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. However consider this: what about all of the products that are imported into Spain that are not produced using wind power. When we consider energy consumption we need to consider all consumption, not just what goes into the grid or how we heat our homes. One of he most energy intensive industries is agriculture where producing fertilizers and pesticides takes enormous amounts of energy. Note also that as with many other industrialized nations Spain imports more goods than it exports (http://www.fita.org/countries/spain.html) and much of the imported goods come from less developed countries where there is much less emphasis on clean energy.

I think this blogpost debunks this pretty good:

http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2009/11/spanish-wind-power-exposed...

Spain only gets about 9% of energy from renewables on average, which is much less than a lot of other countries. The 53% number is very deceptive IMHO, and really shows that you can't count on wind for reliable energy.

I don't see how it is deceptive. It's stated quite plainly that it is a record, and not a normal occurrence. (None of this is spoken in a harsh, rude, or sarcastic tone.) How would you say it differently? (Real question.)