Seven coal plants stop working today due to environmental criteria

Environmental and economic criteria are being imposed in energy policy. Seven of the 15 coal-fired power plants that are still in operation today are no longer operational. These are Compostilla II in León and Andorra in Teruel, both owned by Endesa; Velilla in Palencia by Iberdrola; Narcea in Asturias, La Robla in Léon and Meirama in A Coruña by Naturgy; and Puente Nuevo in Córdoba de Viesgo. Iberdrola has also requested the closure of the Lada plant in Asturias, which will also cease to be operational, but may remain available until it has the authorization to close the Government, given that it has the necessary techniques to be able to operate in compliance with the emission limits of European regulations.

Those seven that are closed, whose authorizations are requested from the Government although it has not sent the final reports, add up to 5.1 gigawatts.

Most of them began to operate with indigenous coal and little by little they have been depending on imports.

The rest will be closed between 2021 and 2025, except for those of EDP, a company that has set the deadline to lock its coal plants in 2030. The plants that would remain to close from next year are As Ponte in A Coruña, groups 3 and 4 of Alcudia in Mallorca and Litoral in Almería, the three of Endesa, Los Barrios in Cádiz de Viesgo, as well as Aboño and Soto de Ribera, both in Asturias and belonging to EDP. There is also the Pereda in Asturias, belonging to EDP, but it hardly uses coal, but operates with biomass. Those seven that are still running on coal add up to 4.7 gigawatts.

“These closures respond to the end of the period of validity of the Transitional National Plan (PNT), an exception mechanism included in the Industrial Emissions Directive of the European Union,” explains Carlota Ruiz Bautista, an environmental lawyer at the International Institute of Law and Environment (Iidma).

This expert says that “it is very difficult to calculate how many people work in the seven that become unavailable until the definitive authorization of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez arrives because many have outsourced personnel.” Other sources say they could add about 1,100 jobs.

Most of them began to operate with indigenous coal and little by little they have become dependent on imports.

European regulations stated that in order for them to continue operating, certain investments had to be made so that they polluted less and in the end the companies have opted for dismantling. In addition to these economic criteria, large companies are betting on clean energy and coal is the raw material that pollutes the most. To this we must add the prices of the energy market (CO2 is very high and gas prices are very low); as well as the business decisions themselves that have to send signals that they are no longer interested in investing in plants that pollute. And finally, the social demand in the fight against climate change is another factor that is gaining more and more strength.

Official sources from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, led by Teresa Ribera, explain that “the resolutions of definitive closure are about to fall, but these are extensive files whose validation processes are long.” These resolutions do not have to receive the approval of the Council of Ministers, but being very technical reports will go directly to the Official State Gazette (BOE).

Decommissioning can take between 3.5 and 6 years. Little by little, just transition agreements will be signed to see what is done in the affected areas and reactivate employment.

Source: The Vanguard