Someone has to pay for the “green fiesta”
EPAW, www.epaw.org 30 October 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 30, 2011
Someone has to pay for the “green fiesta”
Spanish electricity giant Iberdrola warns of another bubble
The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, declared Thursday in Madrid that the brakes should be applied on the development of thermosolar energy in Spain, because it is “economically inefficient”.He warned that this immature technology may create “a new bubble” similar to that of the photovoltaic, with a cost to the Spanish consumers of €2 billion annually (1).
“Someone has to pay for the green fiesta”, he warned at a conference attended by analysts. He added that the amount of public funds spent to support green technologies “makes the Spanish MWh the most costly in the whole of Europe”.
The European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) remarks that, like Greece, Spain continues to squander on uneconomic energy projects money it doesn’t have. The Iberian country has conveniently placed off-budget € 22 billion’s worth of “deficit tarifario”, or green energy deficit, which nevertheless needs to be financed by sovereign debt. EPAW has learned that the Saudis have been invited to finance it, but no details have been released regarding State guarantee or other security being offered.
“What’s most worrying is the lack of transparency”, says Mark Duchamp, EPAW’s CEO. What kind of deal is being offered to the Saudis, he asks? Like the Chinese, who are being asked to fund the European Financial Stability Facility, it is unlikely they will lend billions on an unsecured basis, or without important perks. They’ve seen the German and French banks bite the bullet on Greek debt, now worth to them 50 cents on the euro. “What is being offered that we don’t know?” wonders Duchamp. “Having sold its furniture to pay for decades of public overspending, are the EU governments now mortgaging the European house to be able to continue wasting away money that we don’t have on uneconomic renewable energies?”
EPAW has been provided with scientific proof that “the most mature” of the green technologies, wind farming, doesn’t actually save on C02 and fossil fuel imports. “More on that next week”, adds Duchamp.
The North American Platform Against Windpower (NA-PAW) comments along the same lines. Says her CEO, Sherri Lange: “The United States and Canada are following the European model. It would be wiser to watch and learn, instead of jumping on a bandwagon that’s headed for the cliff.”
Contacts:
Mark Duchamp
CEO, EPAW
www.epaw.org
Tel: 34 693 643 736 (Spain)
save.the.eagles@gmail.com
Sherri Lange
CEO, NA-PAW
www.na-paw.org
Tel: 1 416 567 5115 (Canada)
kodaisl@rogers.com
(1) References:
http://www.expansion.com/accesible/2011/10/27/empresasenergia/1319711373.html
http://www.noticias.com/sanchez-galan-pide-cambiar-el-insostenible-modelo-energetico-espanol.1393134
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/11/03/someone-has-to-pay-for-the-green-fiesta/