Victory for Clean Energy Advocates As Fracking Firms Abandon Spain

Victory for Clean Energy Advocates As Fracking Firms Abandon Spain

Clearly the people of Spain don't want fracking

Spain has been getting a bit of a bad rep lately as far as energy policy goes. Things went downhill when the country decided to “tax thesun” after a particularly generous support scheme for solar power several years ago that saw many homeowners happily install solar panels to receive a feed-in tariff (FIT) from the government.

The government thought it would be good to rein in their financial support of solar power, and now man homeowners with solar panels are in a position where they have to pay a “solar tax” to feed their solar power back into the national grid.

It’s obvious this wasn’t the intended outcome. Spain has a lot of large solar farms, and plenty of windfarms, but it takes more than just renewable energy to support a country the size of Spain right now, which is where fracking comes in.

Fracking is a controversial technique where natural gas is extracted from deep underground, and it’s dramatically transformed the energy sector of the USA, enabling the country to reduce its dependence on oil from Africa and the Middle East. Now the USA can even export their excess energy themselves.

It was hoped that Spain would be able to get on the fracking bandwagon. Fracking companies estimated there was some €700 billion euros in natural gas sitting under Spain that would only be accessible through hydraulic fractured drilling; a process where water, sand, and chemicals are injected into rock buried deep underground at high pressure, with gas extracted through a pipe.

Fracking is a controversial process, with many people living close to fracking sites reporting earthquakes, polluted water, and even fires. That is why there was such a strong opposition to the practice in Spain.

Even so, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy passed a law that allowed for fracking during his previous term, and explorations have already begun by five of the leading fracking teams in the US.

Given the nature of Spain though, it was only natural the natives would continue to be restless about the issue. As soon as a company headed out to a site, they would find themselves greeted by resistance from energy and environmental groups, seeking to block racking as much as possible.

These groups – such as Heyco, BNK, R2 Energy, SHESA, and San Leon – are celebrating this week following the announcement that all the fracking firms that entered Spain have now left the country behind.

This means that the energy future of Spain needs to be considered once again, but now maybe Prime Minister Rajoy will think again about using renewable energy, what with the natural gas stuck in the ground for the foreseeable future.