Either Catalonia makes the energy transition or they will. This is the premise from which many specialists who portray the crucial moment of the energy situation in Catalonia start. The development of clean sources has been so scarce here that a good part of the expectations that exist to cover the future demand for electricity – given the planned closure of the three nuclear plants – come from an initiative promoted by the Aragonese company Forestalia.
This company has three corridors of very high voltage lines (MAT) coming from Aragon and heading to Catalonia in an advanced state of administrative processing to guarantee this future supply. It will be green energy, generated by renewable sources, yes; but it would not be electricity produced in Catalonia.
And this circumstance gives rise to a great debate and endless reflections collected in the book Renewables: l’energia de la llibertat (Pòrtic), written by Jaume Morron, Manuel Torrent and Ramon Tremosa. The three authors, recognized experts in the field, have written an essay exploring the new horizons, the vicissitudes, the changes and all the contradictions that are accompanying the energy transition in Catalonia.
The book first collects a meticulous follow-up of the projects for the large high-tension lines that are being developed in Aragon and, in this way, offers a priceless document that helps us shed light (and never less said) on the dark world. of administrative procedures.
The balance of the development of renewable energies in Catalonia is gloomy but the authors illuminate its chiaroscuros, and manage, based on data and a notable pedagogical effort, to put the figures on the long and rocky path that Catalonia must travel to accelerate the pace that European requirements require using a wide range of proposals.
At this moment, the big question is whether the new legislative corpus that the new ERC government has created or is implementing will be sufficient to achieve the goals programmed in the planning (Prospetiva Energètica 2050): that 50% of the Electricity demand comes from renewable sources in the year 2050.
The implementation of renewable installations does not follow the adequate pace set for 2030 (although there are positive signs in the take-off of photovoltaics).
But the precedents show that the different Catalan administrations have been very given to pointing out great goals, while the balance of the achievements has been far from the objectives, which is why nothing invites the epic, despite the fact that it continues to be the owner of the official speech.
Two examples are enough. Catalonia's energy and climate change plan 2012-2020 (following EU guidelines) required raising the penetration of renewable energies to 20.1% in 2020, but in 2019 that demand only reached 7%. .7%; little more than a third.
And the wind generation capacity was to reach 5,153 MW in 2020; However, it did not exceed 1,271.1 MW, just under 25% of the set objective.
The current pace of implementation of renewables does not predispose us to make great predictions, and that is why its authors demand that a "turn of the helm" be given to authorize projects with maximum speed, shorten project processing times and continue stimulating self-production with renewable sources.
Catalonia was a pioneer in the development of electricity; That is why Morron, Torrent and Tremosa strive to define and reposition the role of this community in the era of energy transition, when the need to reduce foreign dependence on fossil fuels becomes imperative, both for climatic reasons and to guarantee supply.
And the view on Catalonia is summarized in a fundamental observation: the only energy resources available are wind, sun, water and to a large extent waste, indigenous resources of a populated country that has a biogas deposit to be exploited in landfills, farms and wastewater treatment plants.
This is a self-critical look, at a time when Catalonia is witnessing, between astonished and perplexed, the planned "invasion" of the high tension lines from Aragon with the feeling that it has not been able to foresee in time the energy transition that was coming. announcing.
Reflection on their own capabilities and competencies leads one to think that the true planners of the electrical system (Red Eléctrica, the central Administration) consider Catalan self-sufficiency impossible and are endorsing the entry of the three major lines from Aragon, which are obtaining declarations of favorable environmental impact of the State (conditional) but very controversial. But no one says that Catalonia should sit idly by.
In the year 2050, it must reduce energy by 70% (to continue on the path of reducing emissions); but at the same time, 80% more electricity will have to pass through its networks (almost 100% green) to adjust to the electrification (decarbonization) plans.
All this will entail, in any case, the obligation to multiply renewable production systems, triple the capacities of the networks and install energy accumulation systems.
The country can wait with crossed arms for green energy to arrive from Aragon, or move towards "a green, public and citizen electricity system, more distributed and democratic." And the authors of the book position themselves along this line.
Many of the proposals that are launched address the need to reform the electricity market, especially that unfair price formation system (marginalist method) that culminates in the electricity bill, and that makes the most expensive generation mode serve as a reference to reward other technologies, although their lower production costs in no way justify these "fallen from heaven benefits."
The authors highlight the advantages of energy communities, a modality for sharing the energy produced by a photovoltaic plant that is a timeshare, although they are aware that small installations are not enough to face the integrity of the pending challenge.
At this point it is reported that now only the production generated in panels on roofs can be shared less than two kilometers away (or 500 measly meters if they are panels on the ground). Therefore, expanding its radius to a distance of 20 km, as is the case in France, appears as one of the solutions to relaunch this option.
The disappearance of the Kafkaesque scene imposed on the sun was a victory of common sense, but even today self-consumption continues to be hampered by various impediments. The surplus electricity from solar energy discharged during the day into the grid by the self-producer/self-consumer does not have a fair economic compensation (beyond the kWh that are consumed at night from the electrical grid); but the net balance of that surplus generated during the day is not remunerated.
The citizen is now beginning to be an active protagonist of the energy transition and that is why continuing to "give away" electricity to the system is unfair. It is quite a metaphor that summarizes the history of how and who has ruled until the power of the electron.
Eliminating the obstacles that still complicate the takeoff of self-consumption, improving information for citizens, stripping the system of all its hidden or unjustified costs are part of the proposed solutions.
Achieve true competition; This summarizes the catalog of proposals, with the particularity that for this to be an effective reality, the active participation of all administrations and their different levels (from municipal to regional) is needed.
Therefore, the Generalitat creating a public renewable electricity generation park or getting involved with its own distribution company (L'Energètica) are desirable commitments to expand the space for this basic public service.
The book also offers an interesting overview of the development of forest biomass or biogas, among other sources of bioenergy, destined to play a prominent role in the energy transition.
Today forests have an excess of biomass. The country looks more and more like, in potential terms, a "flammable pyre," say the authors to warn of the need to take advantage of and manage the forest's wood, convinced that the management of all this biomass is an urgent need. Beyond the economic benefits of the companies, it can serve to reverse the chaotic and continued expansion of these dangerous forest masses, prevent fires and offer wood and its derivatives as a valuable resource with enormous potential.
However, all this will require stopping criminalizing any felling of trees and guaranteeing that lasting management plans are put in place with all the guarantees.
Another pending leap may come from the promotion of biogas, a resource until now relegated (present in landfills, livestock manure facilities or in the sludge of wastewater treatment plants) but which can be used to obtain heat and electricity. The great advantage it offers is that taking advantage of it does not depend on the weather, as happens with wind or photovoltaics, but on the ability to handle all this waste and organic by-products.
The conversion of biogas (obtained naturally) into biomethane, thanks to modern filtration technologies, allows obtaining a resource similar to fossil gas and can be supplied to industries and delivered to the natural gas supply networks, as has just happened. in the controlled warehouse of Els Hostalets de Pierola.
The book, however, raises a warning: the risk that some of these projects could be frustrated if the advantages that this use can mean to reduce foreign energy dependence are not adequately explained and sufficient political leadership is not given.
The Generalitat's biogas plan 2023-2030 plans to triple the number of biogas plants in the country as a whole in seven years and achieve that annual production in 2030 could represent 13% of current natural gas consumption.
Catalonia does not have important energy resources; but he has no choice but to take advantage of the few he has. And to achieve this, it must be thoroughly used with pedagogy and a participatory and democratic model.
