During nine hours on Tuesday, May 16 – between 10.00 and 19.00 – Spain reached an important milestone: 100% of the peninsular electricity demand was covered by renewable sources (solar, wind, hydraulic), which do not emit greenhouse gases. The expansion of this technology leads the country towards breaking with fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming, and, in addition, helps to lower the price of electricity and break energy dependence.
Last year, Spain was the second EU country that produced the most electricity with wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. And what is coming in the short and medium term is a much greater expansion – especially in the case of solar – driven by the low costs of these technologies and European policies. One leg of this explosion is based on self-consumption, which has skyrocketed without major conflicts in Spain. The other, which is generating some tensions, is the installation of wind and solar plants in rural environments. The autonomies and the Government have granted the environmental endorsement to more than 1,700 projects of both technologies since the beginning of 2022, according to the data collected by this newspaper of the Executives and the official bulletins.
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The protests often focus on the so-called macroprojects, those that add up to more than 50 megawatts of installed power. Their visual and environmental impact is criticized, that they are driven by large companies and investment funds or that they displace other activities such as agriculture. EL PAÍS has proposed to two experts an online debate on this issue. On one side, from Valencia, Pedro Fresco, former general director of Ecological Transition of the Valencian Community, dismissed by Compromís after imposing in that party the current that advocates putting a stop to the development of large parks. On the other, from the American city of Buffalo, Jaume Franquesa, author of Mills and giants. The struggle for dignity, energy sovereignty and ecological transition (Errata Naturae) and well aware of the movements against the installation of these technologies.
Necessity or convenience
Are macro projects necessary? "It is likely that some macroplants are necessary," starts Franquesa, but adds: "The problem is that all the eggs in the basket have been put there and I think we should also look for other options to complement that and, above all, open a debate so that the decision had broad democratic support." Fresco, for its part, warns that "achieving the decarbonization objectives only with self-consumption is unfeasible, among other reasons, because we do not have enough roofs to do that nor could it be done with the necessary speed."
Jaume Franquesa, professor at the University of Buffalo.
The two experts admit the existence of conflicts in rural areas. But behind the opposition to the installation of a project there can be multiple reasons, since it is a very heterogeneous movement. So much so, that both specialists do not agree on the origin of the problem.
"The root of the conflict is that the renewable development model is largely made to satisfy the interests of companies and generates rejection and some resistance in broad sectors," says Franquesa.
—The model is not made to satisfy large companies. In fact, what would most satisfy the large energy companies, the three that today account for 75% of traditional energies, would be that renewable energies were not installed. Because what it is going to cause is that this great concentration is diluted; a lot or little, but it will be diluted with renewables— refutes Fresco.
The former director of Ecological Transition of the Valencian Community points to a "kind of negative coalition of interests" in the movement against renewable plants. "There are ideological cases, but they are not a majority. There are economic issues: for example, considering that a plant, which can be very visible, will not have a positive impact on the people... There may be fears of conflict with previous economic activities, such as agriculture or tourism. There may also be environmental or cultural issues. There are many things that intersect and, probably, the least there is is a conscious perception of the development model, "he says. But Franquesa insists that at the root of the problem is a model that, among other things, deliberately seeks the "least capacity for opposition." "The installation of renewables is done in unpopulated rural places because it is good for the business model of the developers," he says.
Velocity
Some of the rejection movements have called for moratoriums on the implementation of renewables. Franquesa does not believe that we should "stop development now." But he warns that the need to act quickly against climate change can be an excuse: "The argument of haste is being used so that there is no debate. We must create a framework in which we can decide what the criteria are, what kind of transition we want and where we are going. This type of debate, at least, should be able to be done in parallel to the installation, which, after all, if it is being so fast it is because it offers interesting business opportunities. That's not bad, what's bad is that that's the main reason why renewables are moving forward."
Fresh, on speed, apostille: "If we have declared a climate emergency, we cannot not be in a hurry. The rush exists and we have renewable energy targets that we have set for 2030, which we are now revising upwards. Does this end the debate? No, but the debate cannot get in the way. Renewables must continue to be installed and, in parallel, there are a number of debates that we must have. But the intention of some sectors to paralyze everything until a satisfactory solution of the debate is reached cannot be." In any case, Franquesa recalls that tensions with renewables are not new. "There have been conflicts around this since at least the late nineties. The request for debate or to think about the model is not new."
Pedro Fresco, former general director of Ecological Transition of the Valencian Community.Mònica Torres
Like the brick boom
For Franquesa, the development of renewables in Spain is similar to the "real estate boom model". "Then it was said: we need to build, we need new projects to be done. And the municipalities, willingly or unwillingly, found that the only way to move forward was to build."
—It is true that it has some relations with the boom and that may be one of the explanations why the anti-renewable movements in Spain are more left-wing— explains Fresco —But make no mistake: if we are promoting renewables it is not because it is a private profit, but because it is a collective good. The fight against climate change is a collective good, as is Spain's energy independence. You can not apply the same logic to set up a circus or a mechanical workshop as to put renewables. It is an obligation of our generation to fight climate change.
Well, let's say that what ultimately motivates renewable development is something other than the real estate boom, although I have not encountered any economic project that is not justified to some extent as a common good. When it was being built in the boom [real estate] it was also done for the good of Spain — counters Franquesa.
Solutions
What they both agree on is that things can be done better and in many of the measures that can be taken to achieve it. Franquesa points to the promotion of the "co-ownership" of the plants to give participation to the neighbors; or the "reinvestment of profits in the municipality" for the "stimulation of local employment"; or "explore the possibility of making electricity cheaper for local residents and businesses"; or "additional tax figures" that could be applied by municipalities or autonomous communities to companies. All these proposals are also defended by Fresco: "Renewable developments have to leave benefits in the places where they are installed; Right now there are already some taxes [on companies], but we have to make these benefits greater and help to fix industry in the territory." This expert adds one more factor: "improvements in the location of plants". It proposes not only to determine the zones in which renewables cannot be installed, but also to establish the areas of "preferred" installation. "Why haven't all these things been done before? We have been doing this for a quarter of a century and it has not been done. Resistance comes from a lack of will," laments Franquesa.
Nationalism and anti-renewables
Franquesa criticizes that the ecological and energy transition has been presented as "a purely technical issue". "But it is a political issue and therefore we have to be aware that we are making political decisions," he says. Regarding the ideological component of the movements against the large parks, this specialist points out that in Spain "they come more from left-wing trajectories than from the right." But he does not see nationalism as playing a decisive role.
Fresco does not think the same: "I think that nationalism and regionalism do influence. The stateless nationalisms that exist in Spain have tended a lot to the defense of the territory and the romantic vision of the territory has been defended precisely because it has no State. In cases such as the Valencian Community, Catalonia or Euskadi, I perceive that nationalism that feels deeply rooted in the territory, to which it has given a lot of sentimental value, responds more strongly against its alteration". And he adds one more factor: "We also have regionalisms in the so-called emptied Spain, but in this case the important thing is the feeling of grievance accumulated over decades by the development model. All that feeling of grievance has been sublimated when renewable energies have arrived, despite not being the culprits."
The proposals of the major parties
He receives every afternoon the bulletin Diario de elecciones, written by the deputy director of EL PAÍS Claudi Pérez. And here, the x-ray of all the communities that go to the polls.
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