Es Murterar coal plant in Alcudia would be closed down by 2025 at the latest under the new law.

Es Murterar coal plant in Alcudia would be closed down by 2025 at the latest under the new law. | Miquel A. Cañellas

Humphrey CarterPalma17/02/2018 00:00
TW
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The Majorcan Industrial Association (ASIMA) yesterday announced its “total rejection” of the local government’s new climate change bill. On Thursday, the Balearic government announced a pioneering climate change bill which has been praised by green groups across Europe and backed by a number of other regions in Spain, despite the government having set itself on yet another collision course with Madrid which still supports the use of fossil fuels.

The association, which represents the majority of the island’s industrial companies, said that it totally rejects the plan. Its main objection is that by 2020 all industrial buildings covering an area of more than 1,000 square metres will have to instal and run off solar power and this is going to cost businesses a great deal of investment. The proposed climate change law would make the islands some of the greenest in the world, but not everybody appears to approve of the project. In the Balearics less than 3 per cent of electricity is at present generated from renewable sources, primarily from solar panels.

Coal-fired power plants, diesel generators and gas plants account for more than 70 per cent of supply, while most of the rest is imported from the mainland. The plan would involve a phased shutdown between 2020 and 2025 of the islands’ main coal plant in Alcudia, a proposal that has been rejected by the Spanish energy ministry. The Climate Change Law, closely modelled on the UK’s own Climate Change Act, sets out a legal framework for ensuring the Balearics rapidly ramp up clean energy generation over the coming decades, with a 10 per cent renewables share target for 2020, a 35 per cent goal for 2030, and a 100 per cent target for 2050.