Spain Says Has Power To Spare, Can Phase Out Nukes

Spain’s top energy official said on Monday the country had enough spare generating capacity to phase out nuclear power stations in the medium term, in line with government policy.

In recent years, Spain has subsidized renewable energy in order to cut its heavy dependence on fuel imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is now the world’s third-biggest producer of wind power and the second-biggest of solar.
Nuclear power is unpopular in Spain and both major political parties ruled out building new plants in last year’s elections.

“Investing in nuclear energy makes sense when there are problems in ensuring supply. In ‘99 or 2000 that was the case with our energy margin,” Energy Secretary Pedro Marin told a conference on energy policy.

“We now have substantial spare generation capacity, a very broad demand structure, without any problem,” he added.

Spain has an installed generating capacity of some 90,000 megawatts and record demand of 43,000 MW, and has been a net exporter of power for several years.

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