Nuclear power supplies more than a fifth of Spain’s energy. But its socialist government plans to shut down all Spain’s nuclear power plants by 2035. That will increase utility bills, make it harder to cut carbon emissions, and make Spain’s electric grid less reliable and more prone to blackouts.
Conservatives narrowly lost Spain’s 2023 election. They warned the socialists would do this if they were returned to power, shutting nuclear plants at the expense of the economy. “We cannot unplug 21% of the energy installed in Spain without having another 21% capable of running with renewable energy,” said the conservative party leader, adding that in such scenario “the price of energy will rise exponentially.” Yet,
Spain on Wednesday confirmed plans to close the country’s nuclear plants by 2035 as it presented energy measures including extended deadlines for renewable projects and adjusted renewable auctions….Dismantling of the plants, whose shut down will begin in 2027, will cost about 20.2 billion euros ($22.4 billion) and will be paid for by a fund supported by the plants’ operators, the government said.
To remedy the shortfall in energy production caused by closing nuclear power plants, Spain would need to either use more fossil fuels, or add new wind power and solar power at a breakneck speed that seems economically unsustainable, given that much of Spain’s existing windmills are reaching the end of their useful life. Spain will try to do the latter:
In June, the Spanish government raised its wind power target to 62 GW by 2030, up from a previous target of 50 GW, as part of an ambitious climate plan to generate 81% of the country’s electricity from renewables by 2030. The draft plan doubles the solar target from 39 GW to 76 GW and sets a slightly higher storage target of 22 GW.
To meet this objective, wind developers will need to install roughly 4 GW a year over the next seven years, well above the 1.4 GW they installed in 2022.
Yet many existing wind turbines will be going out of operation. 7500 wind turbines in Spain will have to be dismantled by 2028, leaving behind waste that is hard to dispose of.
Wind turbines don’t last forever, and they leave behind fiberglass blades that landfills often won’t accept. Moreover, the “blades have low energy content, and burning fiberglass emits dangerous pollutants,” notes the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. In short, notes CNN, “wind energy has a massive waste problem.”
36% of wind turbines generating electricity in Spain will need to be decommissioned by 2028 as they become obsolete. That’s 7,500 wind turbines and 20,000 blades that will have to be dismantled and disposed of somehow. Those wind turbines were installed before 2005, but their lifespan is only 20 to 25 years.
Their steel, copper wires, and generators can be reused. But not their fiberglass blades, which only a few landfills in Spain will accept.
Closing down nuclear power plants makes no sense. Unlike wind farms, nuclear power plants don’t kill birds. The biggest U.S. utility that generates wind power pleaded guilty to federal crimes for killing 150 eagles. Nuclear plants emit no air pollution, only harmless steam. So shutting down nuclear plants tends to increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Nuclear power, unlike wind energy, produces steady, reliable power, regardless of the weather. Many years ago, France and Sweden replaced most of their fossil-fueled electricity with nuclear power, and as a result, ended up emitting less than a tenth of the world average of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour. “Nuclear power is the safest form of energy we have, if you consider deaths per megawatt of energy produced,” notes Yale University’s Steven Novella. “Wind turbines, surprisingly, kill more people than nuclear plants,” notes Michael Shellenberger.
Nuclear power is best for the environment, notes Reason Magazine’s Ronald Bailey.
