Spanish government plans to phase out nuclear energy by 2035

The Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition has announced plans to close all the domestic nuclear power plants between 2025 and 2035 as part of the country's objective to generate all its electricity from renewable sources by 2050.



In 2018, nuclear energy accounted for 7% of the domestic installed capacity and 20% of the gross power production. Spain has 7 nuclear reactors in operation with a total combined capacity of 7.1 GW, spread over 6 sites and licensed to operate until 2020-2025: Almaraz-1 (1,011 MWe), Almaraz-2 (1,006 MWe), Asco-1 (995 MWe), Asco-2 (997 MWe), Cofrentes (1,064 MWe), Trillo-1 (1,003 MWe) and Vandellos-2 (1,045 MWe). They are owned by power utilities Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy. Other nuclear reactors have already been closed such as José Cabrera (142 MWe) in 2006 and Garoña (446 MWe) in 2013.



In November 2018, the government unveiled a draft energy and climate plan (Plan Nacional Integrado de Energía y Clima), which aims to cover 70% of domestic power generation with renewables by 2030 (up from 23% in 2017) and 100% by 2050. It targets 35% of renewables in final energy consumption by 2030, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2030 and as much as 90% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. The draft encourages the installation of at least 3 GW per year of renewable - mainly wind and solar - capacity.



If the draft becomes a law, this would mean that Spain's national objectives would outstrip the targets adopted under the EU’s clean energy package. The European Parliament and the Commission agreed in 2018 that member states would have to contribute to an EU-wide objective of 32% for renewable based power generation and 32.5% for energy efficiency uptake by 2030.