Spain is hastening towards a coal-free power sector, with the government accepting energy company Endesa’s request to close its 1,468 MW As Pontes coal plant by August 2024. It will be replaced by a portfolio of renewable energy projects across Galicia, including 1 GW of wind power capacity, which the company says will directly create 1,300 jobs in the region.
The end of Spain’s coal industry presents communities on the front line with numerous challenges and opportunities.
Spain’s Los Barrios coal plant to close and six Turkish coal plant projects cancelled
Spain and North Macedonia joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) at the London Climate Action Week today, bringing the number of European countries that have committed to phase out coal by 2030, or are already coal free, to sixteen. North Macedonia will close its two coal plants by 2027, while Spain has opted for an unambitious 2030 end date for coal, despite closing all of its coal mines and more than half of its installed coal capacity since 2019.
Spain has experienced a massive decline over the last year and a half, a large majority of coal mines closed by the end of 2018, more than half of installed coal capacity closed at the end of June 2020, and it is expected that the last coal power plant will shut no later than 2025.
Eight Spanish coal power plants are expected to close, and a host of coal units in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia face a very challenging future.
A landmark step leads the way to phase-out coal in the Spanish power system.
The briefing gives an overview of the two utilities’ power mix and existing coal plant fleet; Enel owns a 70.1% majority share in Endesa.
Spanish Endesa will close its Compostilla II #coal plant in four months’ time. The request for closure, which shows that stronger […]