The Strength of the World

Many people believe that the contribution renewable energy sources make to the generation of electricity as a whole is little more than anecdotal. Truth be known, they actually provided 33% of the total electricity consumed in the Spanish State in 2011. Few people know that wind power potential in Spain is almost three times that of nuclear power. Not many are aware that high quality, easily extractable petroleum is a thing of the past. A little known fact is that each millisecond, energy production must be instantly adjusted to fit demand because electricity is produced at the same time it is consumed. Most people are surprised to learn that energy imports from the European Union cost each European 700 euros annually (350,000 million euros in total). This money goes mainly to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Libya (and also Norway, which does not belong to the European Union). It is obvious that there is a huge gap between the importance of the energy issue and the level of knowledge and general awareness of the problem. Therefore we have called upon several experts to explain this topic. Emphasis has been placed on the problem of primary energy production, generation of electricity and energy consumption policy guidelines. These are the aspects of the energy issue that affect users directly, in other words, they affect us all.

Ramon Folch. Doctor in Biology and Socio-ecology. President of ERF (Estudio Ramon Folch & Asociados). Ex-president of the Social Council of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and member of the IEC (Institute for Catalan Studies), Spain.