On December 27, the Council of Ministers approved the Seventh General Plan for Radioactive Waste (PGRR) - already published in the BOE -, the roadmap for the coming decades on the closure and dismantling of nuclear power plants, the management of the waste they leave behind and how much it will all cost. The final version of the several that the PGRR has had confirms the phased closure of all nuclear power plants between 2027 and 2035 until total blackout. According to this calendar, the first of the Catalan reactors to close will be Ascó I, in 2030; the second, Ascó II, will do so in 2033; and the third, Vandellòs II, in 2035.
These three plants, located in the province of Tarragona, generated 22,368.1 GWh of electricity in 2023, which makes them the main energy source for the production of electrical energy in Catalonia, representing 58.5% of the total generation ( 38,267 GWh), according to provisional data from Red Eléctrica. This nuclear production has accounted for more than half of the electricity consumption of the autonomous community. With the closure, the Catalan generation network will lose its 3,033 MW of installed power, and its replacement with fully renewable ones before 2035 will be a complex exercise.
In Catalonia, a photovoltaic installation produces on average 1.3 GWh/year for each MW installed. In 2023, its 307 MW installed from this energy source generated 393.6 MWh. Meanwhile, Ascó I, Ascó II and Vandellòs II, with their 3,033 MW installed, have produced 22,368.1 GWh. That is, they generated 7.4 GWh on average for each MW installed, which represents a performance six times higher than that of photovoltaic plants. Therefore, 17,206.2 MW of installed solar panel power would be needed to compensate for the closure of the three nuclear power plants, something that would mean having to multiply the current installations by five. The main factor that explains this fact is that nuclear energy offers stability to the electrical system by always being available. They operate, with the exception of refueling and maintenance stops, practically 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Photovoltaics, on the other hand, only generate electricity when there is sun, forcing the energy to be accumulated in those periods to be used in periods of shade.
In economic terms and extrapolating the figures handled by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) in force - an investment of 18,182 million euros to add 32,100 MW of new photovoltaic power throughout Spain - the investment necessary to build 17,206.2 more photovoltaic MW in Catalonia would amount to nearly 10,000 million euros. According to data from Red Eléctrica, since 2015 only 40 MW of photovoltaic energy have been put into operation, reaching a total installed power in the region of 305. The evolution of wind energy has suffered a similar fate, growing by only 107 MW, up to 1,376 MW.
The production of electrical energy with non-renewable energy sources in Catalonia was 84.3% in 2023 (latest data available). Wind only represents 8% and photovoltaic, 1%. Furthermore, to have one MW of electrical power in a photovoltaic plant, two hectares of land are needed, so it would be necessary to build panels in 34,500 hectares of Catalan territory to compensate for the nuclear closure. To put this figure in perspective: it would be almost four times the total area of the city of Barcelona or 5.5% of the province of Tarragona. On the other hand, the closure of nuclear plants will imply an increase in the production of combined cycles, the greater use of which would exponentially increase greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for climate change.
These gas plants generated 15.2% of the electrical energy in Catalonia in 2023. If they increased their production to offset the generation of the three nuclear power plants, CO2 emissions would increase by around 30%. Thus, as Andreu Mas-Colell recently defended, nuclear has become a transitional energy and solution for decarbonization, although the new tax increases—the Enresa rate will increase by 40%—threaten to suffocate a sector that accumulates 1.3 billion euros of losses in the last decade, according to the Nuclear Forum.
