An increasingly worrying electricity deficit and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants—last year they produced more than 50% of the energy consumed in Catalonia—have put us on alert. And all that was missing was the recent major blackout. Catalonia consumes more electricity than it generates. In 2024, electricity consumption in the Principality was 44.1 TWh, while production stood at 37.4 TWh, representing a deficit of 15.19%.
Faced with this reality, we either get our act together or we will become increasingly dependent. It is in this sense that it is necessary to read the Government's decision to approve a decree law declaring the overriding public interest ofelectrical storage with batteriesIt is the first Spanish administration to take this step, which is key to streamlining the processing of these facilities and providing security and stability to companies that generate renewable energy.
Regardless of whether one thinks we need electrical sovereignty or that it is unnecessary, what is relevant is that a country with sun and wind does not take advantage of these free and non-polluting natural resources to gain a competitive advantage through the production of its own green energy.
On the one hand, we have a population fortunately aware of the environmental crisis;
Catalonia must want to be at the forefront of green energy production. At the moment, we are at the bottom of the list in Spain and Europe.
They are ecological, but they are green energies and, therefore, with infinitely fewer side effects than those produced by the use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, or hydroelectric infrastructure.
Aside from the aforementioned decree, the government has also authorized the expansion of the staff of the Catalan public company La Energética, which has set the goal of having the renewable energy potential necessary to supply all of the Generalitat's public services by 2040. It's about leading the way and setting an example. Some city councils are also moving in the same direction. It will also be necessary for the private business sector and individual citizens to join the commitment to green energy. Because, indeed, we need large wind and solar farms, as inconvenient as they may sometimes be, and they must be distributed evenly across the country. But we also need smallholdings for self-consumption. Everything counts. The energy future must be green.
