Spain Produced 54% of its Electricity from Renewable Sources in April Taz Loomans, inhabitat.com Renewable energy is gaining major momentum in Spain. In April, the country set a new record with renewable energy accounting for 54 percent of the electricity generated in Spain. April’s figure just outpaced March’s record of 51.8 percent of electricity generated by renewables. And those numbers should continue to grow, as wind and solar development continues in the Mediterranean country. Spain’s electrical grid operator, Red Electrica De Espana (REE), reports that hydropower made up 25 percent of April’s overall electricity generation, wind power accounted for 22 percent, solar photovoltaic came in at 3.6 percent and solar thermal at 1.3 percent. If this current pattern holds, Spain may produce more electricity from renewables than it has in recent years. In 2006, renewable energy accounted for just 19% of the electricity generated in Spain. The percentage peaked in 2010 at 35 percent and kept steady around 32-33 percent in 2011 and 2012. Spain is targeting wind power to supply 40 percent of the electricity consumption by 2020, and the country is looking to grow its solar photovoltaic potential. To that end, Extramadura in Western Spain, which gets 3,200 hours of sun a year, just announced a new 250 MW unsubsidized solar plant. Once built, the PV plant is projected to be the third largest in the world.
casuist: Ruins. Spain’s economy will sink deeper into recession this year, the Bank of Spain said on Tuesday, sending a stark message to the government as it prepares to revise its own growth forecast. In its annual update of economic forecasts, the central bank said it saw Spain’s economy shrinking by 1.5 percent in 2013 following a 1.4 percent contraction last year as austerity continues to exacerbate the effects of a burst property bubble. The central bank’s new estimate is well below the official forecast for a 0.5 percent contraction in GDP, although the government is widely expected to revise the 2013 figure downwards in April. (via Contrary To Prior Lies, Spanish 2013 Economic Contraction Even Worse Than In 2012 | Zero Hedge)
phnk: (via The Eurozone Political Crisis in One Picture)
Investors Throw Spain a Lifeline as Economy Shrinks →
borcsok: The 51% Tragedy: A Majority of Young Greek Workers Are Now Unemployed For the first time on record, more young Greek workers are without a job than with one, Reuters reports. Official youth unemployment in Greece has crossed the 50 percent barrier and there’s very little reason to think that this is the ceiling. The economy is still shrinking. The latest round of austerity, which will punish wages and lead to more firings, has yet to set in. And, as economic pain tends to inflict itself disproportionately on the young — young unemployment in the US is similarly twice the national rate — there’s good reason to expect that austerity will bite Greece’s young economy even more severely.  Here’s the graph from Eurostat data, via FT Alphaville. It only goes back to the end of 2011, but it gives you a sense of the scale of the crisis
Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt | Wall Street Journal →
There Was A Crucial Vote In Spain Today — And Spanish And English Media Saw It Very Differently Joe Weisenthal, businessinsider.com The Span­ish region of Cata­lan had an elec­tion today, which was seen as a quasi-referendum on inde­pen­dence, which is an aspi­ra­tion of many in the wealthy Span­ish region. The basic gist is that pro-separatist parties did well, but the main party, which had run on a platform of moving forth with a real independence referendum, did very poorly. That subtlety is resulting in very different takes across media. For example, Reuters declares that the separatists had a big day FT declares that the region took a step towards independence, and that it’s a major blow to Rajoy And WSJ declares that voters also strongly endorsed autonomy Now compare that to big Spanish media. It’s instead focusing on how the election was a disaster for the main party, lead by Artur Mas, which lead[s] votes. […] So the world sees a strong showing for separatists overall, while Spanish media focuses on Mas’s specific setbacks. Either way, it may be awhile before the political ramifications totally shake out, and it’s unclear yet what this means for Spanish PM Rajoy, and whether he has the political capital to ask for a bailout.
Catalonia increasing separatist stance against Spain →
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