Renewable energy: an honest debate

The energy debate will mark the public agenda in the coming years. It is not an easy debate because, as we are seeing these days with the expansion of El Prat airport, with large infrastructures there is no such thing as zero cost. Renewable energies also affect the territory: they are clean, but they are not immaculate. They take up space, they affect the landscape. And at the same time they are very necessary to replace fossil fuels and thus slow down climate change. Moreover, they are cheaper to produce than fossil fuels

The energy transition in Catalonia still has to resolve a major challenge: how will the country keep the lights on when nuclear power plants close, which they will have to do by 2035 at the latest? Local opposition to large renewable energy facilities has its logic - no one likes their immediate surroundings to be occupied by windmills or solar panels - but it leads us to alternatives that we do not like either: the installation of extra-high voltage lines (EHV) to transfer the energy production generated in other areas. This is exactly what could now happen with a private project originating in Aragon and approved by the State administration, which is the one with powers in the case of these macro-projects (in small ones, only affecting Catalonia, the Generalitat has the last word). The BOE published the endorsement of this EHV line on July 28th. The energy to be transported will be produced in Teruel, mainly from wind farms, and then transported along 287 kilometres (181 of them in Catalonia) to reach Begues substation in the Baix Llobregat, with the aim of supplying Barcelona metropolitan area. It will pass through eight counties and the affected municipalities and county councils, as well as environmental organisations, have launched protest and legal actions to stop the project. The Generalitat's department for Climate Action will also present allegations. And there are also protests in Aragon, in this case against the production facilities.

The small-scale use of renewable energies, with the involvement of citizens - for example, through the installation of small solar panels in homes or businesses - is undoubtedly an area that needs to be promoted. But, given the strong demand, it will be difficult to do without renewable energy parks. In early July, after complaints from many municipalities, the Generalitat froze new wind farm projects and announced that in autumn it would present a new decree with tighter conditions to be met to obtain a license. The Aragonese project has taken advantage of this in-between time to move forward. The fact is that Catalonia needs to move towards green energy as soon as possible, an area in which we are lagging behind. We must decide whether to produce or import clean energy. But in both cases we will have to take some kind of unpopular decision. It would therefore be very important for the debate to be tackled with neither self-deception nor radicalism, putting technical knowledge first and seeking the maximum possible consensus, but in the knowledge that it will cause some harm. Because there are no magic solutions