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Ellos habrán usado energía renovable ayer.

Ellos habrán usado energía renovable ayer.
They probably used renewable energy yesterday.
From Lesson 176:The future perfect (habré...)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ellos habrán usado energía renovable ayer.

Why is a future tense verb (habrán usado) used with the word ayer (yesterday)?
This is exactly how Spanish expresses a guess or probability about the recent past! While habrán usado literally translates to "they will have used," combining it with a past time marker like ayer shows the speaker is making a deduction. It means "they probably used" or "they must have used."
How do I know if habrán usado means "will have used" instead of "probably used"?
Context is your best friend here. Because this sentence includes ayer (yesterday), it physically cannot mean an action completing in the future. If the sentence instead said para el lunes (by Monday), then habrán usado would take its literal meaning: "they will have used."
Could I just say probablemente usaron instead?
Yes, absolutely! Saying ellos probablemente usaron is grammatically correct and very common. Using the future perfect is just another natural, native-sounding way to express that exact same deduction without needing an extra adverb like probablemente.
How is the verb phrase habrán usado put together?
It is the future perfect tense, which is built using two parts. First, you take the future tense of the helping verb haber (in this case, habrán for "they"). Then, you add the past participle of your main verb, which is usado for the verb usar.
Why isn't there a la before energía renovable?
When talking about an uncountable noun or a general category acting as the direct object (the thing being used), Spanish often leaves out the definite article, just like English does. They used "renewable energy," not a specific "the renewable energy."

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