Spain’s renewable energy conundrum

Spain will continue to rely on coal to back up its huge renewable energy programme, although linking the country’s electricity grid to France will also help, the Spanish government said

Spain’s wind-power capacity has nearly doubled since 2006 to 20.1 gigawatts (GW), according to grid operator Red Eléctrica. Electricity production from wind increased by the same ratio, to 43.4 terrawatt hours (TWh), while output from coal-fired power plants has dropped by over two-thirds to 20.9 TWh. “Of course renewables are good, but we need back-up technology and the only back up technology that is Spanish, or European in this case, is coal. So we cannot say goodbye to coal indefinitely,” said Spain’s minister of industry, tourism, and trade, Miguel Sebastian, on the sidelines of the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting in Paris. “In Spain, there are some hours in the day that