Elon Musk says Spain can provide all of Europe's energy

The biggest impediment to connecting Spain’s energy to Europe, however, has been the French government, which has opted for a much more expensive “nuclear strategy” to curb greenhouse gas emissions and try to achieve energy independence, said Sánchez-Herrero. He lays the blame specifically on Électricité de France (EDF), the utility responsible for running France’s nuclear plants. “Today’s nuclear energy is much more expensive than power from the sun and the wind,” he said. “They don’t want competition from the south.”

Paris-based Pellerin-Carlin, of the Jacques Delors Energy Centre, agrees that French decision makers, swayed by EDF, halted expansion of electrical interconnectedness between Spain and France, resulting in what today is an “electricity traffic jam” between the two countries.

"It was mostly the French government that did not want cheap Spanish electricity to come to France because it would have been bad for the profits of EDF, which sometimes overinfluences French decision making,” Pellerin-Carlin told Yahoo News. (EDF did not respond to a request to comment from Yahoo News.)

But that scenario is changing quickly, he added, and not only because of access to Russia’s gas.

“Now we're in a new situation,” said Pellerin-Carlin. France faces “a big risk of blackouts in winter for the next two to three years.” He points to his country’s aging nuclear plants, the lack of investment in renewables and energy efficiency, and its soaring electricity prices as the reason. “There is an interest now on the French side to make sure that there can be more flow of electricity between France and Spain." However, he added that ramping up electrical connectivity between the two countries will take several years.

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union was already on track with goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and slash greenhouse emissions by 55 percent by 2030, largely through investing heavily in solar and wind energy generation. Those plans have only speeded up with Russia’s war on Ukraine, EU sanctions on Moscow, skyrocketing energy costs and increasing uncertainty about fossil fuel supplies. “Climate change is an urgent emergency,” said Sánchez-Herrero, “but it’s going to be the war that spurs rapid change.”

Over the past few years, Spain has been galloping ahead in developing solar capacity, thanks in large part to the country’s second-largest utility, Iberdrola, which has been advancing large-scale renewable projects. In 2020, Iberdrola opened the massive Núñez de Balboa photovoltaic plant in northern Spain, with 1.43 million solar panels spread across 2,470 acres — approximately one-fifth the size of Manhattan. An even larger solar installation, the Francisco Pizarro Project, due to be running this year, will have 590 megawatts of capacity and “will provide clean energy to 375,000 people a year and become the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe,” Xabier Viteri, Iberdrola’s director of renewable energy business, told Yahoo News. But despite the enthusiasm for more renewable energy sources, analysts say the pace of regulatory approval can be glacial — regardless of the country.

“One of the biggest challenges for the deployment of renewable energy is the speed of the permitting process,” said Viteri. “It can take over five or six years to receive permits for a wind or solar project that can then be built in 12 months.”

Chevillard agrees. “Permitting is a common obstacle to solar deployment,” she said. “The waiting periods and administrative procedures are unnecessarily burdensome.”

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, is pushing EU member countries to cut through the red tape, requesting that approvals be given within two years. In the meantime, European officials are also looking to promote smaller-scale solutions like putting solar thermal collectors on rooftops to heat water.

“It’s very much underused,” said Pellerin-Carlin, particularly given the many sunny days in Spain. “There is more solar heating in Austria than in Spain,” he added.

Nuclear is your answer

This douche really thinks he can solve all of the world's problems with one fleeting utterance, doesn't he?

[quote] The biggest impediment to connecting Spain’s energy to Europe, however, has been the French government, which has opted for a much more expensive “nuclear strategy” to curb greenhouse gas emissions and try to achieve energy independence, said Sánchez-Herrero.

[quote] He lays the blame specifically on Électricité de France (EDF), the utility responsible for running France’s nuclear plants. “Today’s nuclear energy is much more expensive than power from the sun and the wind,” he said. “They don’t want competition from the south.”

This is why most people in the world pay higher prices for everything.

The 1% and Corporate pigs don't want any competition, because it takes money out of their pockets.

We get stuck paying outrageous prices, so that they can live like kings.

The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind sometimes stop blowing.

[quote]This douche really thinks he can solve all of the world's problems with one fleeting utterance, doesn't he?

That douche has already helped Europe enormously by setting up a charging station network and now offering its service to non-Tesla EV owners:

You really think Ford, GM or Chrysler would have ever developed such a thing?

Only a moron would believe that Musk is the world's richest man. The richest people on earth are the owners of the central banks and Forbes magazine guards their anonymity.

BTW, Barcelona is now infested with hundreds of thousands of half naked middle aged (25-30) tourist fish!! What is attracting them here? We fear poisonous contaminatia by foul stinkfish odors!

Central banks aren't owned by any one person, genius. The richest people are the royal families of the Gulf states.

r5 Why is why there are industrial batteries, hydro, and inter-continental lines that allow electricity to flow across the continent.

Spain is building out solar and wind like crazy right now, and green hydrogen as well. Combined with their massive LNG capacity, they really will be the renewable energy leaders in Europe soon.

Maybe I don’t understand how the things work but why are there like twelve Tesla charging stations in a row in the places I’ve seen them? Surely they don’t expect 12 Teslas to be charging in simultaneously.

verificatia please r8

Musk has Rich Person's Disease, where his wealth and status make him think that just because he is skilled in a few areas of his life, he is equally skilled in all other areas.

Unfortunately he is also turning into the new Trump, taking the spot where his every random utterance and flatulence gets turned into news articles.

Musk has also claimed that we could generate all the electricity the US needs by building a huge solar farm in Utah. Apparently, the world's richest man whose wealth is largely tied up in electric car manufacturing and is indeed viewed as an expert in electricity generation somehow fails to see basic facts, like that transmitting electricity over long distances is incredibly inefficient and not cost effective. I guess anyone who would move their electric car manufacturing company to Texas, with its famously unreliable electric grid, doesn't understand basic concepts.

No way! Spain's prime minister is named Pedro Sánchez? 😂

Like the character 'Pedro Sánchez' in NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, who ran for class president and won. 🤣

A better option would be solar farms in Australia producing hydrogen from seawater and then exporting it across the world.

There is no way to know the owners of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The original shares were issued in 1914 and they have refused to submit to an audit, the shares have never traded, and nobody will reveal who exactly owns them. There is some evidence that the Rockefeller Foundation is a substantial shareholder.