Català
Español
English
The objectives are to increase savings, renewable energies and an improvement in the quality of energy supply.
The future Catalan Energy Agency of the Generalitat will be responsible for coordinating the Government's actions in this area in order to monitor compliance with the objectives set by this energy plan, which will be reviewed every three years.
The investments planned for the 2006-2015 Energy Plan will reach 9,955 million euros, of which 1,464 million will be public and will correspond to renewable energy projects, energy efficiency, undergrounding and relocation of power lines, rural electrification and gasification of new municipalities.
In terms of energy savings, the plan aims to reduce consumption from a planned 20 Mtoe to 17 Mtoe by 2015. Catalonia currently consumes the equivalent of 15 million tonnes of oil (Mtoe). To achieve this reduction in consumption, 141 specific measures will be defined for industry, transport, services, the domestic sector and other sectors in order to constitute a shock plan.
This Energy Plan is committed to renewable energies and foresees that the percentage of participation in the balance of the energy we consume will increase from 3.3% in 2003 to 11% in 2015. The State Government's Renewable Energy Plan, also recently approved, foresees a similar figure, 12.1% of consumption for 2010. The highest contribution corresponds to wind power with 3,500 MW followed by hydroelectric power with 2,474.8 MW.
Regarding energy infrastructure, the Generalitat proposes the closure of the most obsolete and polluting conventional thermal power plants and the location of electricity generation close to demand. It also wants to maintain a balance between annual electricity production and demand, in addition to foreseeing the need to build between 5 and 8 combined cycle units powered by natural gas. The plan also proposes a strategy for closing nuclear power plants based on the German and Dutch models with a gradual schedule taking advantage of the progressive decrease in the weight of nuclear production and a contribution from the plants to the financing funds intended for savings and the development of renewable energies. The Generalitat stipulates that the closure will begin in 2022, framed in the context of a State pact.
Another of the objectives to be achieved will be the reinforcement of the Catalan electricity network in order to ensure the guarantee of supply and the quality of the supply to the user but also to increase its interconnection capacity with the rest of Europe. The Generalitat considers, as a possible option, the new transmission line proposed by the Spanish and French states as long as it guarantees the minimum environmental impact including the possibility of burying parts of the route.
Another important requirement regarding the electrical network is to anticipate the future power needs of the high-speed train so that the passage of this railway infrastructure through the various Catalan municipalities, including those in Tarragona, does not affect us with disturbances such as voltage fluctuations, harmonics and load imbalances.
Through this energy plan, the Generalitat also ratifies Catalonia's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol under the terms set out in the National CO2 Emissions Allocation Plan 2005-2007.
Finally, it is worth noting that a program to promote research and technological development in the energy field is being implemented. This involves promoting energy technologies and equipment that are not yet available but are in the commercialization phase and that, if they were to become a reality, would represent a very important step. The four axes of the proposed development are based on promoting sustainability, security and diversification in energy supply, improving industrial competitiveness to reduce energy demand and improving social and economic cohesion through advances in understanding how new technologies affect us.
