Spain's largest utility Iberdrola has submitted applications to close its two remaining coal-fired plants in Spain, the company said in a statement Friday, culminating a global strategy to close all its remaining coal plants.
The two Spanish plants, at Lada (348 MW) and Velilla (also known as Guardo, two groups with a combined 486 MW) are both almost entirely dependent on imported coal.
According to Iberdrola, The dismantling of both plants is expected to take around four years.
For Lada, the announcement comes as a surprise after Iberdrola received permission last year to convert the plant to new nitrogen oxide and and sulfur dioxide emissions standards amid a wholesale closure of non-compliant plants at EU level by 2020.
For Iberdrola, Friday's move follows 4 GW of thermal closures (fuel oil and coal) in Spain alone since 2001 as it has steadily replaced thermal with renewable generation to establish itself as a leading worldwide renewable player.
However, it is not certain that the plants will obtain approval from the Energy Ministry, which has been preparing a decree in recent months precisely to slow the rapid closure of so much generating capacity.
Under current laws, a plant's closure must be approved by the ministry, the regulator and the grid operator Red Electrica, with the ministry getting the final say.
Spain's geographical position means it requires a significant footprint of thermal plants to guarantee baseload -- a situation brought into sharp relief this year by the nuclear outages in neighboring France and record low hydro output.
Coal-fired generation in Spain during January-October met 17% of all demand -- second only to nuclear and more than double the share of hydro over the same period.
In the UK, since buying Scottish Power in 2007, the company has closed its two coal plants: at Cockenzie (1.2 GW) and last year at Longannet (2.4 GW).
