A new report issued this week highlights the environmental resources available to this country of sun and sea.
Back in February of this year, Al Gore spoke about Spain´s role in in the race to offset the damage of global climate change. Spain, he said, could lead the world in renewable energy use. But Al Gore has said this of many a country during his Inconvenient Truth tours, but yesterday his words took on an additional weight as Greenpeace released its conclusions about how Spain could live up to the fossil fuel challenge in the decades ahead and reiterated much of what the ex-Vice President has always had to say.
Alternatives to fossil fuels.
The report entitled: 100% Renewable. An Electrical System for the Spanish Peninsular and its Economic Viability, states that by 2020, Spain could have 50% of its electrical needs proveded from renewable resources and by the year 2050, it could be produciing 100% of its energy needs exclusively from non fossil fuel sources.
Bold, visionary and perhaps not unrealistic claims for this southern European country that can in places enjoy up to 320 days of sunshine per year. With over 5.000km of coastline, the sunniest climate and the highest mountains in Europe outside Switzerland it would appear to have the resource potential to fulfil some of both Mr. Gore´s and Greenpeace´s claims.
120.000 million Euros.
According to the Director General of Greenpeace in Spain, Juan López de Uralde, the report is both viable in economical and technological terms and that the time to act is now and with urgency. Uralde states that although Spain has the technology, it does not have the time to wait before starting to apply it. According to the Greenpeace report, the costs of conversion would be 120.000 million euros to be spent over a 25 year period. The success of such a plan would depend on the distribution of the energy production centres so that at low production periods the storage facilities would be close to the end consumer. Each autonomous region would have specific production capabilities according to its ecological potential: Andalusia in the south, would be able to produce more energy from the sun, integrated into the very buildings of towns and cities, whilst a region such as Galicia on the Atlantic coast could maximise its potential for wave power and wind generation. The success of the plan would depend on maximising this variation in production and geographical siting. Significantly, the report´s release date coincided with a new law in Span that obliges all construction companies to install solar water heaters in new or reformed buildings as part of the country´s attempt to reduce its C02 emissions.
