The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
At the start of the 20th century, the country faced a serious problem in that domestic coal was expensive, and of low quality. With high tariff walls, that meant that electricity was costly. So as the start of the 20th century, there was massive investment in hydroelectric. This basically covered demand until the 1960s, when the economic miracle took hold.
At that time, Spain turned to petroleum fired plants to cover new demand. At the time petroleum was a cheap alternative to coal. Understandably, they got shellacked come the oil crisis. There had been a a number of nuclear facilities planned at the start of the 1980s, but there was local opposition. ETA got the idea that this was an issue that they could latch on to. And.... they killed some of the workers at the planned Lemoniz plant. The government abandoned the expansion shortly thereafter. At this time, there was a movement towards combined cycle gas plants during the 80s and 90s. Again, gas was a cheap alternative. That began to come to an end. Finally, Spain moved to develop windpower in the late 1990s. The drive to build up renewables has a lot to do with the relative energy poverty of the Iberian Peninsula. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 33 comments
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 13 28 comments
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 15 90 comments
by gmoke - Jan 7 13 comments
by gmoke - Jan 29
by Oui - Jan 2731 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 263 comments
by Cat - Jan 2533 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 2110 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1839 comments
by Oui - Jan 1590 comments
by Oui - Jan 144 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1328 comments
by Oui - Jan 1219 comments
by Oui - Jan 1120 comments
by Oui - Jan 1031 comments
by Oui - Jan 921 comments
by NBBooks - Jan 810 comments
by Oui - Jan 717 comments
by gmoke - Jan 713 comments