Open Access
At the crossroad between green and thirsty: carbon emissions and water consumption of Spanish thermoelectricity generation, 1969–2019
(Elsevier, 2022) Cano-Rodríguez, Sara; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Sesma Martín, Diego; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The energy sector is the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and one of the thirstiest sectors worldwide. Within the energy sector, thermoelectricity directly impacts on both emissions and water. This study assesses the evolution of the direct CO2 emissions and operational water consumption of the Spanish thermoelectricity generation from 1969 to 2019. Both carbon emissions and water consumption correlate over time, led by the trends in total thermal generation, although over the past half century, water requirements swelled far more than carbon emissions. This results in a long-term trade-off between carbon emissions and consumptive water use in relative terms: while the CO2 per thermal MWh generated halved since 1969 in Spain, the operational water consumption per MWh of thermoelectricity generated more than doubled due to switching from coal burning to nuclear and combined cycle technologies. We find no real trade-off in absolute levels. Although moving towards smaller environmental impacts since the mid-2000s, thermoelectricity remains one of the largest carbon emitters while becoming one of thirstiest energy technologies in Spain.
Open Access
Freshwater for cooling needs: a long-run approach to the nuclear water footprint in Spain
(Elsevier, 2017) Sesma Martín, Diego; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía
From the invention of the steam engine to the present, water has represented a significant input to the energy system, although this has been mostly ignored in the literature. In Spain, the most arid country in Europe, studies about water footprint typically just consider domestic, agricultural and industrial water uses, but water requirements for the electricity sector are omitted despite our dependence on thermal power. It has been demonstrated that for each available cooling technology, nuclear needs and consumption of water tend to be larger per MWh generated. We calculate a first approximation to the Spanish nuclear water footprint from 1969 to 2015. Our results show that while water consumed by Spanish nuclear power plants are around 3 m3 per capita/year, water withdrawals per capita/year are around 70 m3. Moreover, our analysis allows extracting conclusions focusing on a River Basins approach. What is the water impact of our nuclear power plants? Will water limit our energy future? These are some of the issues at stake.
Open Access
Energy transition(s)
(Edward Elgar, 2023-09-28) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia
Any meaningful change from one state of an energy system to another one may constitute an energy transition. Given the many components related to the production, conversion, delivery, and use of energy, it is worth referring to energy transitions in plural. Most of the academic literature about energy transition(s) concentrates on the shifts of the structure of the primary energy supply in the long run, while in parallel, energy systems endure enormous transformations in the quantity, the quality, the methods of conversion and delivery and the destination of final energy. Meanwhile, "the energy transition" has been increasingly adopted as a shorthand for describing a pathway towards transforming the global energy sector away from fossil-based into low carbon emissions, becoming the commonest usage of the term among the public. The concept has evolved from an historical observation about energy systems into a necessary tool for achieving desirable future energy scenarios.
Open Access
Transiciones energéticas en España
(Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2024) Muñoz Delgado, Beatriz; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
El consumo de fuentes de energía ha sido una constante a lo largo de la historia de la humanidad. Conforme las sociedades se han ido desarrollando, han ido incrementando la cantidad, la diversidad y la calidad de las energías demandadas para satisfacer sus necesidades. Esta evolución ha motivado cambios en los sistemas energéticos: en su estructura (variedad de energías empleadas), tecnologías e infraestructuras asociadas, eficiencia, intensidad, seguridad de suministro y en sus impactos medioambientales, haciendo más complejos y determinantes a los sistemas energéticos. Estos cambios han permitido la expansión de la capacidad de transformación del entorno por parte de los seres humanos, una mayor complejidad de las sociedades y la ampliación de la frontera de posibilidades de producción y consumo. En este fluir de los acontecimientos, se han ido produciendo una serie de transiciones energéticas.
Open Access
La financiación exterior del desarrollo industrial español a través del IEME
(Banco de España, 2015) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
El objetivo central del trabajo es, en primer lugar, reconstruir las grandes cifras del capital exterior que contribuyó a la financiación del desarrollo industrial de España entre 1950 y 1982; y, en segundo lugar, estudiar la vertiente financiera de las inversiones que las grandes empresas nacionales y extranjeras practicaron en dos sectores estratégicos a lo largo de ese período: el sector eléctrico y la industria del automóvil.
Open Access
200 years diversifying the energy mix? Diversification paths of the energy baskets of European early comers vs. latecomers
(Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2017) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Muñoz Delgado, Beatriz; Economía; Ekonomia
The changes in the composition of the energy basket in the long run lead to energy transitions. Primary energy substitution models allow addressing these phenomena. However, the diversification paths of the energy mix of different countries in a long term compared perspective have not been studied yet. This paper proposes an indicator, based on the Herfindahl‐Hirschman Index, the Energy Mix Concentration Index (EMCI), to quantify the degree of diversification of the primary energy basket of eight European countries over the last two centuries. The results reveal that early comers, which are large energy consumers, required a huge concentration of their energy basket in the 19th century; however, the observed countries had converged to similar levels of diversification of their energy mixes from the second half of the 20th century, and more crucially after the oil crises. For some countries, today’s degree of diversification is the largest in their energy histories, but it is not the case for all of them. Our results suggest that small energy consuming countries would be able to achieve higher diversification, and therefore to do a faster transition to a low carbón economy, than large energy consumers.
Open Access
Nuclear power for a dictatorship: state and business involvement in the Spanish atomic program 1950-1985
(SAGE, 2016) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Economía; Ekonomia
Spain was the first developing country to exploit a nuclear power plant commercially. By the early 1970s Spain had become the major nuclear client of the USA, the world’s largest reactor exporter. Despite its importance, historians are just beginning to revisit and establish the sequence of the events that make up Spain’s nuclear history. This article analyses the role played by the state in enabling one of Western Europe’s poorest countries to join the exclusive nuclear power club. In a departure from the technological approach used in previous literature, the history of Spain’s progress in the nuclear power field is retraced against the background of its political and economic evolution.
Open Access
Electricidad nuclear y procesos de aprendizaje: el papel de Westinghouse y de General Electric en la experiencia española (c. 1955-1973)
(Universitat de Barcelona, Departament d'Història i Institucions Econòmiques, 2018) Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Economía; Ekonomia
Este artículo explora los procesos de aprendizaje y de transferencia tecnológica que situaron a España entre los firstcomers de la energía nuclear a finales de los años sesenta. Se trata de un ejemplo de industria naciente que, bajo la protección del Estado y la acción de los consorcios empresariales y de las multinacionales norteamericanas, fue capaz de replicar un reto tecnológico complejo. Analizamos cómo se fue creando un ecosistema empresarial en el que fue clave el liderazgo de algunos ingenieros y la cooperación y competencia entre industrias, ingenierías y consultoras. La historia empresarial de las centrales nucleares de Zorita y Garoña ejemplifica un modelo de learning by doing que, a través de los contratos 'llave en mano', permitieron un rápido crecimiento del sector, convenciendo al gobierno de la dictadura y a los promotores eléctricos de que era posible llevar a cabo uno de los programas nucleares más ambiciosos de la Europa occidental.
Open Access
Siting (and mining) at the border Spain-Portugal nuclear transboundary issues
(Brepols, 2018) Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Carvalho, Antoni; Torre Campo, Joseba de la; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía
This article is focused on nuclear transboundary issues between Portugal and Spain, two countries that share a long history of nuclear collaboration and conflict of late, where national borders played a crucial role. The issues at stake cover the full spectrum of the nuclear cycle: uranium mining, power production and waste disposal. The first stage, under two fascist dictatorships, was characterised by collaboration within a common techno-political imaginary, where nuclear energy was understood as a driver of modernity, but with the absence of the public in decision-making processes. The second stage was marked by the advent of democracy in both countries and the reconfiguration of nuclear policies: while Portugal abandoned the nuclear endeavour, Spain implemented a nuclear moratorium but kept ten reactors operative. The third phase, which started in 1986 and goes until the present time, was marked by two crucial events: joining the European Communities (EC) and the Chernobyl accident. The first event allowed Brussels to become a referee on Spanish/Portuguese nuclear disputes. The second one implied that Portugal expanded its institutional vigilance on Spanish nuclear activities and led to the emergence of transboundary social movements against nuclear power.
Open Access
Water for whom?: unravelling the allocation of water storage capacity between irrigation and electricity uses in Spain during the 20th century
(Sociedad Española de Historia Agraria, SEHA, 2024-12-01) Bartolomé-Rodríguez, María Isabel; Rubio Varas, María del Mar; Sesma Martín, Diego; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Esta investigación examina la complejidad de la relación entre la asignación de recursos hídricos, la generación de energía y el regadío en España. Esta tarea se acomete tras el examen de la evolución del marco regulatorio de la asignación de recursos hidráulicos e introduciendo un enfoque novedoso para cuantificar los usos del agua. Por vez primera, se descompone la categoría de usos mixtos, que corresponde a la mayoría de los embalses de propiedad pública, gracias a la información disponible sobre las entidades que disponen no de la propiedad sino de las concesiones de agua. Nuestros resultados revelan el significativo peso de las compañías eléctricas privadas en la gestión de los recursos hidráulicos, pese a la prevalencia de la propiedad pública de las infraestructuras. La hegemonía hidroeléctrica en la asignación del agua contribuye a hacer patente la complejidad de la relación entre la propiedad pública y la gestión privada de las infraestructuras por parte de las compañías eléctricas. Finalmente, la contribución a una mejor comprensión de la singularidad histórica de la gobernanza del agua en España apuntala la necesidad de consideraciones más matizadas en el terreno de políticas que conciernen las relaciones entre agricultura y energía.