Extend the life of nuclear power plants in Spain beyond the year 2035, while by 2030 renewable energies can reach 80% of electricity production, according to the new Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). Nuclear share while renewables are growing in abundance. Here is the significant proposal that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has made known this week in Barcelona.
According to what is agreed today, the nuclear shutdown would occur in stages between 2027 and 2035. The first four reactors that would stop working would be the oldest: Almaraz I and II, Ascó I and Cofrents. Between 2021 and 2035 Ascó II, Vandellós II and Trillo would be closed.
Núñez Feijóo’s proposal does not seem improvised, even if it does not have much concreteness about the cost of the operation and the distribution. First, it can be read in terms of political identity. conservatism A message to Spain that distrusts the acceleration of changes. Reducing the speed of the ecological transition is today the slogan of the European People’s Party, concerned by the agrarian protests in several countries.
Message to Italy. One of the companies that could be more interested in the extension is Endesa, owner of Ascó I and II and Vandellós II, with a stake in Almaraz I and II. Endesa is a subsidiary of the Italian public company Enel (Ens Nacional de l’Electricitat). Going to the extension of the plants would mean negotiating politically with the Government of Giorgia Meloni, which at the moment also defends nuclear energy in the country. The current parliamentary majority, led by the post-fascist party Brothers of Italy, approved in May a motion in which it defends the construction of small nuclear reactors of the fourth generation, as well as tightening collaboration with European countries that already produce energy nuclear In Italy, a country with a high population density, complicated topography and numerous seismic risk zones, there are no nuclear power plants. For the same reasons, renewable energies are not as developed as in Spain. The main vector of Italian energy policy is gas, therefore, with the problem with Russia. A pro-nuclear turn by Spain would be very good news for Meloni, a political leader for whom the EPP feels a strong attraction.
A message also for France and Germany, who maintain a serious struggle within the European Union over the accentuation of energy strategies, in favor of renewables (Germany) or the nuclear industry (France). The French demand that the reform of the European electricity market does not harm the powerful nuclear park (56 reactors). Germany wants more incentives for renewables. A change in Spain’s position could change the current balance of power between Germany and France on a fundamental issue.
As we can see, Núñez Feijóo’s proposal contains several elements and each of them tells us something about a future Spanish foreign policy, a matter about which the Galician politician speaks very little.
