Opinion paper

A critical analysis of the Spanish electrical system: risks and opportunities by 2050

  • Received: 30 September 2014 Accepted: 22 December 2014 Published: 05 January 2015
  • The Spanish electrical system is now in a position to take advantage of developments from the recent past. Many of its facilities, such as nuclear and coal power stations, have a useful life which will come to an end during the 2020-2030 decade [1] (from 2021 in the case of Vandellós 2, and up to 2028 in the case of Santa María de Garoña). The mankind is currently going through a global environmental crisis which includes greenhouse effect gas emissions as a major component [2]. These are closely linked to the energy system, particularly to electricity generation, and could be a determining factor in the future evolution of such a system. Clearly, such a crisis can potentially lead to serious difficulties in accessing energy for many people. The energy business sector has been undoing its ties to particular territories and has been expanding towards other countries to become more and more dependent on foreign capitals and decision-makers. Now that a stagnant period for electricity demand is being experienced, this does not favor new schemes. However, new proposals should be considered given that many infrastructures will soon be obsolete. In this paper some scenarios are proposed to contemplate the transition of the Spanish electrical system towards an energy model with the year 2050 in mind, where the goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions [3]. One of the factors to be considered during this period should be the participation of renewable energies. Transport and mobility are also likely to undergo some changes, for similar reasons, and in this time frame they will increasingly be designed to use electricity.

    Citation: Andrés Feijóo, César López, Emilio Menéndez. A critical analysis of the Spanish electrical system: risks and opportunities by 2050[J]. AIMS Energy, 2015, 3(1): 1-12. doi: 10.3934/energy.2015.1.1

    Related Papers:

  • The Spanish electrical system is now in a position to take advantage of developments from the recent past. Many of its facilities, such as nuclear and coal power stations, have a useful life which will come to an end during the 2020-2030 decade [1] (from 2021 in the case of Vandellós 2, and up to 2028 in the case of Santa María de Garoña). The mankind is currently going through a global environmental crisis which includes greenhouse effect gas emissions as a major component [2]. These are closely linked to the energy system, particularly to electricity generation, and could be a determining factor in the future evolution of such a system. Clearly, such a crisis can potentially lead to serious difficulties in accessing energy for many people. The energy business sector has been undoing its ties to particular territories and has been expanding towards other countries to become more and more dependent on foreign capitals and decision-makers. Now that a stagnant period for electricity demand is being experienced, this does not favor new schemes. However, new proposals should be considered given that many infrastructures will soon be obsolete. In this paper some scenarios are proposed to contemplate the transition of the Spanish electrical system towards an energy model with the year 2050 in mind, where the goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions [3]. One of the factors to be considered during this period should be the participation of renewable energies. Transport and mobility are also likely to undergo some changes, for similar reasons, and in this time frame they will increasingly be designed to use electricity.


    加载中
    [1] Foro Nuclear (2014) Operación a largo plazo de las centrales nucleares españolas. Available from: http://www.foronuclear.org.
    [2] Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) (2014) Climate change 2014. Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Available from: http://ipcc-wg2.gov.
    [3] The World Bank (2014) CO2 Emissions. Available from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.KT/countries.
    [4] Trading Economics (2014) Spain unemployment rate. Available from: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/unemployment-rate.
    [5] Foro Nuclear: Energía (2013) Available from: http://www.foronuclear.org.
    [6] European Comission, European Economy. (2013) Member states' energy dependence: An indicator based assessment. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_paper/2013/pdf/ocp145_en.pdf.
    [7] Heras-Saizarbitoria I, Cilleruelo E, Zamanillo I (2011) Public acceptance of renewables and the media: an analysis of the Spanish PV solar experience. Renew Sust Energ Rev 15: 4685-4696. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.083
    [8] Special Eurobarometer 364 (2011) Public awareness and acceptance of CO2 capture. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_364_en.pdf.
    [9] Red Eléctrica de España (REE) (2012) The Spanish Electricity System. Available from: http://www.ree.es.
    [10] Solchaga C, Gallego M, Mestre C, et al. (2010) La creación de Red Eléctrica de España, 1982-1985. Available from: http://www.ree.es/sites/default/files/downloadable/creacion_ree.pdf.
    [11] Ley 54/1997 de 27 noviembre del sector eléctrico (1997). Available from: http://www.boe.es.
    [12] CORES (2014) Corporación de Reservas Estratégicas de Productos Petrolíferos, Importaciones de gas a España, diciembre de 2013. Available from: http://www.cores.es.
    [13] Greenpeace (2005) Renovables 2050. Un informe sobre el potencial de las energías renovables en la España peninsular. Available from: http://www.greenpeace.org/espana/es/reports/renovables-2050/.
    [14] Greenpeace (2011) Renovables 100%. Un sistema eléctrico renovable para la España peninsular y su viabilidad económica. Available from: http://www.greenpeace.org/espana/es/Trabajamos-en/Frenar-el-cambio-climatico/Revolucion-Energetica/Renovables-100/.
    [15] Asociación Empresarial Eólica (2012) Impacto económico del sector eólico en España. Available from: http://www.aeeolica.org.
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2015 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(3697) PDF downloads(858) Cited by(0)

Article outline

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog