Energy consumption for cooling homes in Europe continues to rise as heatwaves become more frequent and more intense.
In 2024, Spain ranked second among EU countries by total energy spent on air conditioning in homes, behind only Italy.
According to Eurostat:
- 🇪🇸 Spain: 14,300 terajoules
- 🇮🇹 Italy: 26,300 terajoules
- 🇬🇷 Greece: 11,900 terajoules
Over six years, the EU-wide figure nearly doubled: from 40,500 terajoules in 2018 to 80,400 terajoules in 2024.
Despite the high absolute numbers, air conditioning’s share of Spanish households’ final energy consumption is about 2.5%. This is noticeably lower than in:
- 🇨🇾 Cyprus (16%)
- 🇲🇹 Malta (15%)
- 🇬🇷 Greece (7.4%)
The differences are explained by the structure of energy use, the age of the housing stock, climatic conditions, and the significant role of space heating and domestic hot water. At the same time, growing demand for cooling challenges the country to ensure thermal comfort for the population without a proportional increase in load on power grids and a rise in emissions.
European strategy focuses on accelerated building renovation: the “Renovation Wave” plan provides for upgrading 35 million buildings by 2030 and at least doubling the annual rate of energy retrofits.
In Spain, NextGenerationEU funds are directed toward upgrading homes, neighborhoods, and public buildings, but to achieve the targets it is necessary to:
- simplify procedures for obtaining subsidies;
- improve the availability of qualified specialists;
- speed up work on:
- improving buildings’ thermal envelope;
- replacing outdated air conditioners and heat pumps with high-efficiency models;
- deploying passive solutions—external shading, ventilation, and green roofs.
Proper equipment operation also helps curb consumption growth ✅:
- maintaining a temperature of 25–27 °C;
- using eco modes and occupancy sensors;
- keeping windows and curtains closed during the hottest hours;
- ventilating at night;
- regular filter cleaning and professional servicing.
A comprehensive approach combining energy retrofits, passive measures, efficient air conditioning systems, and flexible demand management will make it possible to adapt Spain’s housing stock to a changing climate without an excessive increase in electricity bills.