Teresa Ribera: “The timetable for the closure of nuclear plants is still valid”

The Minister for the Energy Transition and the Demographic Challenge does not reconsider extending the life of plants and considers that the gas crisis is an impulse to accelerate the transition towards a 100% renewable model

Spain remains firm in its fight against nuclear energy. The plans of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez to close the nuclear power plants that remain operational in the country between 2027 and 2035 follow the path established despite the increase in gas prices since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the expansion of operations in other countries such as France and the decision of the European Commission to consider it as a green energy. Spain’s strategy, on the other hand, is to take advantage of the energy crisis as a driver of change towards a model based on renewables.

Asked about the expansion of the use of nuclear in neighboring countries during the meeting “Talks with…” Teresa Ribera pointed out that “the poor French are not in the best moment to talk about stability in the nuclear field.” The Minister for the Energy Transition and the Demographic Challenge pointed out that since January France has had its nuclear park operating between 35% and 50% of its activity. “When we talk about energy security for this winter, we know that the most relevant factor is how France and Portugal do. Portugal is unfortunately doing badly because of the drought,” he explained, a problem that Spain also faces and for which it is preparing with modern, balanced hydrological plans.

“Spain is running on battery with Portugal contributing 35% of the electricity it consumes. But it is that Spain is working at the maximum of its export capacity as a result of this worrying state of the French nuclear park that has no signs of recovering soon and that was aggravated by the lack of water and high temperatures, to the point of launching an appeal to all its neighbors in October to keep electricity exports to the maximum “. Ribera argued.

Spain is thus the only country that has nuclear technology that does not consider extending the life of its plants or building new ones to ensure energy supply in the medium and long term. For Ribera, Spain’s energy situation is less critical than that of its European neighbors and the responsibility of promoting the transformation of the energy model prevails. Therefore, he considered that the timetable for the closure of nuclear power plants “remains valid”. “We believe that it is possible to comply with that closure schedule and that forces us to make an effort in renewables and renewable storage to give security to the system,” said the third vice president.

Likewise, Ribera said that “entering a new complete cycle of nuclear power plants” is not the preferred option of investors and “in order to mobilize a very important amount of public resources it would be necessary to think if it makes sense, when it is also not the natural option from the point of view of stability and security”.

The Government proposes a 100% renewable electricity sector by 2050, a goal that will not be altered by the gas crisis, on the contrary, “with which it is falling, it is an additional reason to go faster,” said Teresa Ribera. “The realization of the fragility that this addiction to fuels such as gas represents for Europe makes us reflect on how important it is to reduce this dependence at full speed and replace this energy with other alternatives,” he added.

The Minister of Energy Transition again insisted that “without renewable energies we would have much higher prices like those of other European countries that depend more on gas and coal” and pointed out that this commitment to clean energies will also be a magnet for investment and industrial, technological and service innovation.

Source: Reason