Spain is on fire gas and Coal generating electricity in the midst of an energy crisis. Fossil fuels are gaining power in the deployment of technologies in the Spanish electricity system. collapse of hydropower generation with drought (-49% until August), lower contribution wind (-0.3%) and to meet historically high exports to France due to the shutdown of more than half of its nuclear power plants, and also to Portugal due to the blow of the drought. This is how El Periódico de España publishes it.
this gas plants more doubled its production So far this year and by concentrating almost a third of all energy produced and surpassing nuclear and wind power, they have positioned themselves as the main electricity generation technology in the country. And coal plants, which are still in operation and are already completely out of power, have more than doubled their output, taking advantage of high electricity prices. become profitable again in his last moments.
A tip over in the mix production that slows progress to achieve a result cleaner electrical system and pushing Spain to break the trend of continually reducing CO2 emissions in recent years. Electricity companies increased their CO2 emissions by about 45% between January and August, according to records from Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the operator of the national electricity system.
From the beginning of this year to Friday, September 16, the Spanish electricity system reached 32.8 million tons of CO2. To match the 35.9 million tons spread throughout 2021 and will surpass them in a few weeks.
Spain is determined to break the trend of reducing emissions that has driven it to branding. historic lows The gradual decline in coal has been in a row over the past three years, thanks to the expansion of renewable resources and the demand for electricity contained by low economic activity during the pandemic.
Increases in emissions in the summer went wild, Increase peaks of almost 78% in July and 60% in August with the explosion in the production of gas plants. In fact, in July alone, emissions reached 4.83 million tons of CO2, thus recording the highest monthly figure in three years.