Extend the life of nuclear power plants in Spain beyond 2035, while renewable energies can reach 80% of electricity production by 2030, according to the new National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec). Nuclear share while renewables grow and grow. This is the significant proposal by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, released this week in Barcelona.
According to the agreement, the nuclear blackout would occur in stages between 2027 and 2035. The first four reactors that would stop working would be the oldest: Almaraz I and II, Ascó I and Cofrentes. Between 2021 and 2035 Ascó II, Vandellós II and Trillo would be closed.
Núñez Feijóo's proposal does not seem improvised, although it lacks specificity about the cost of the operation and its distribution. In the first place it can be read in terms of political identity. conservatism. A message to Spain that is suspicious of the acceleration of changes. Reducing the speed of the ecological transition is today the slogan of the European People's Party, concerned about the agrarian protests in various countries.
Message to Italy. One of the companies that could be most interested in the extension is Endesa, owner of Ascó I and II and Vandellós II, with a stake in Almaraz I and II. Endesa is a subsidiary of the Italian public company Enel (National Electricity Entity). Negotiating the extension of these facilities would mean negotiating politically with the Government of Giorgia Meloni, who at the moment also defends nuclear energy in her country. The current parliamentary majority, led by the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, approved last May a motion in which the construction of small fourth-generation nuclear reactors is defended, as well as closer collaboration with European countries that already produce energy nuclear. In Italy, a country with a high demographic density, complicated orography and numerous seismic risk areas, there are no atomic power plants. For the same reasons, renewable energies are not as developed as in Spain. The main vector of Italian energy policy is gas, with the consequent problem with Russia. A pro-nuclear turn by Spain would be very good news for Meloni, a political leader with whom the EPP is attracted.
Message also for France and Germany, which maintain a serious struggle within the European Union on the accentuation of energy strategies, in favor of renewables (Germany) or the nuclear industry (France). The French demand that the reform of the European electricity market not harm its powerful nuclear park (56 reactors). Germany wants more incentives for renewables. A change in Spain's position could change the current relationship of forces between Germany and France on a major issue.
As we can see, Núñez Feijóo's proposal contains various atoms and each of them tells us something about a future Spanish foreign policy, a chapter on which the Galician politician is very short on words.
