Extremadura is currently one of the territories that is experiencing the explosion of so-called clean energies. Between lithium mines and photovoltaic panels its inhabitants see little return from this electrical colonization.
The production of electrical energy with respect to the state total in 2019 was 8.07%. The 21,030 GWh generated in Extremadura place it in an outstanding sixth place, only surpassed by Catalonia, Andalusia, Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León. The balance of the energy generated in the Extremadura region shows an export balance of 16,053 GWh in 2019: 76.33% of the total production1 of electrical energy produced. On the other hand, the electrical energy consumed had a value of 4,959 GWh, which represented 1.87% with respect to the state total.
The properties of most of the energy sources in the Extremadura Community (as well as in the rest of the state2), renewable and conventional are in the hands of a small number of electricity companies, mainly Naturgy, Endesa and Iberdrola. The fact that electrical energy is the backbone of the vast majority of all the different productive and non-productive activities confers enormous political power on its owners. What gives them the ability to influence the approval of regulations or the setting of the price.
Extremadura has for centuries attributed the exclusive function of contributing human and material productive factors (emigration and raw materials) for the industrial development of other territories of the Spanish State. Most of the energy generated goes outside the territory. Low consumption is the result of low industrial development and the existence of energy poverty: 20% of the Extremadura population lacks sufficient resources to cover their energy needs3.
The Extremadura territory needs a change in energy and production policies so that the community can develop and stop being a mere exporter of energy and raw materials. For that, we have to make pressure on the central and regional governments to turn a historical situation that must end 180º.
1 http://industriaextremadura.juntaex.es/kamino/attachments/article/13981/Presentaci%C3%B3nBEE19.pdf 2 https://www.businessinsider.es/radiografia-renovables-espana-energeticas-391171 3 https://www.europapress.es/extremadura/noticia-ccoo-extremadura-alerta-extension-pobreza-energetica-pide-medidas-efectivas-combatirla-20210222105423.html
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