Spain (6th ed.)

The economic crisis has been particularly harsh in Spain and the government has been forced to introduce many austerity measures which have had a direct impact on the coal industry. At the same time, the country is highly dependent on imported oil and natural gas. It has an overall import dependence of 72.9%, well above the EU average of 53.5%. This places a burden on the Spanish economy by increasing its trade deficit and foreign indebtedness. Spain’s primary energy production was 48.7 Mtce in 2015.

General data		2015
Population	million	46.4
GDP	€ billion	1 075.6

The only significant indigenous energy resource that Spain possesses is coal, totalling 4 500 million tonnes, including accessible reserves of 1 156 million tonnes. In 2015, coal met 10.9% of the country’s energy demand through a combination of 3.0 million tonnes of domestic production and 19.0 million tonnes of imported coal. Oil, natural gas and nuclear are the other principal energy sources, with wind and solar providing 6.2% of total primary energy supply.

Electricity supplied in 2015 came mainly from conventional sources: nuclear power with 57.3 TWh gross (20.4%), followed by hard coal 52.9 TWh (18.9%), natural gas 51.3 TWh (18.3%) and hydro 31.2 TWh (11.1%). Solar and wind have grown strongly since 2000 to 63.2 TWh (22.5%) in 2015, while biomass and waste accounted for the remaining 2.7%.

Spain has one of the most dynamic electricity markets in Europe. There is fierce competition between coal-fired and natural gas-fired power generation for the market that remains after nuclear, hydro and must-run renewables have supplied. Hydro output can vary significantly from one year to the next and, with a system capacity margin of over 100%, there is plenty of room for switching between energy sources.

Hard coal

Hard coal deposits in the north-west Principality of Asturias are located in the Nalón Valley and are of a low calorific value. Nevertheless, in the past they were Spain’s biggest source of coal. Today, high extraction costs have led to the gradual closure of mines. In 2015, 1.2 million tonnes were produced in Asturias. The deposits at León-Palencia are also of a low calorific value, although some anthracite seams are present. Coal in the Astur-Leonesa basin north of La Robla in the region of Castilla y León, where anthracite is mined by HULLERA VASCO-LEONESA and CARBONAR, has a high calorific value (5 500 kcal/kg or 23 000 kJ/kg) and low volatile matter, making its extraction more economic. Hard coal mines located in the region, especially in the León and Palencia provinces, produced 363 thousand tonnes in 2015.

The hard coal basin at Puertollano in the Ciudad Real province south of Madrid has reserves for several decades. Mining is very important at Puertollano with an output of 169 thousand tonnes in 2015.

The province of Teruel in the Aragon region boasts the largest sub-bituminous hard coal reserves in Spain, of which some 200 million tonnes can be extracted by opencast mining. The high sulphur content of this coal (4% to 6%) made it less attractive for use at power plants in the past, before plants were fitted with flue gas desulphurisation. 1.3 million tonnes of coal were produced in 2015.

In all, there are thirteen active coal mining companies operating in Spain: BIERZO ALTO, CARBONES ARLANZA, CARBONAR, CARBONES DEL PUERTO, CÍA GRAL MINERA DE TERUEL, CÍA ASTUR LEONESA, ENDESA, ENCASUR, HIJOS DE BALDOMERO GARCÍA, HULLERA VASCO-LEONESA, MINERA CATALANO ARAGONESA, UNIÓN MINERA DEL NORTE and HULLERA DEL NORTE.

On energy policy developments, the “Coal Plan for the years 2013 to 2018” was agreed in 2014. The Spanish government committed itself to find a mechanism to facilitate indigenous coal consumption after expiry on 31 December 2014 of the Royal Decree 134/2010 which had been approved by the European Commission in 2010 (N178/2010). Although this decree was challenged in the courts, the decision of the European Court of Justice on 3 December 2014 was favourable for coal producers (Castelnou vs. Commission). CARBUNIÓN (the Spanish National Coal Mining Employers’ Association) participated as a co‑defendant while Castelnou is an EDF Group company that operates two CCGTs on the Spanish Mediterranean. It had argued that its CCGTs were idle because of the Royal Decree’s support for coal. This argument was annulled by all the evidence presented, both by the Commission and the Spanish government.

In summary, the European Court of Justice held that the Decree was fair because the public interest is more important than that of a private company. The arguments used and the decision taken in this case set an important precedent for future decisions of the European Court of Justice that may affect coal producers in other EU member states.

In May 2016, the European Commission announced that the Spanish government’s plan of October 2013 to grant €2.13 billion for the orderly closure of twenty-six coal mines by 2018 was in line with EU rules on state aid, in particular Council Decision 2010/787/EU (case SA.34332).

Lignite

At the end of 2007, Spain’s last lignite mines located in Galicia on the north-west side of the Iberian Peninsula were closed. Lignite reserves of 210 million tonnes remain.

The FUNDACIÓN CIUDAD DE LA ENERGÍA (CIUDEN) is the leading public developer of CO₂ capture, transport and geological storage in Spain. Its development centre for carbon capture technologies in León is testing injection and monitoring techniques for supercritical CO₂ injection in underground strata at Hontomín. CIUDEN has links with other international research centres and currently has contracts with the European Commission under the 7^th Framework Programme.

Spain

Coal resources and reserves
Total resources hard coal	Mt	4 500
Total resources lignite	Mt	210
Reserves hard coal	Mt	1 156
Reserves lignite	Mt	210

Primary energy production		2015
Total primary energy production	Mtce	48.7
Hard coal (saleable output)	Mt / Mtce	3.0 / 1.8

Saleable coal quality
Hard coal net calorific value	kJ/kg	18 231
Hard coal ash content	% a.r.	34.6
Hard coal moisture content	% a.r.	13.2
Hard coal sulphur content	% a.r.	2.5

Coal imports / exports		2015
Hard coal imports	Mt	19.0

Primary energy consumption		2015
Total primary energy consumption	Mtce	170.6
Hard coal consumption	Mtce	18.5

Power supply		2015
Total gross power generation	TWh	280.5
Net power imports (exports)	TWh	(0.1)
Total power consumption	TWh	280.4
Power generation from hard coal	TWh	54.6
Hard coal power generation capacity	MW	11 906