In June, when the sun hits hardest, the Spanish electricity grid registers demand peaks greater than 36,800 MW that renewables comfortably cover. We are, in electricity generation, the envy of Europe. And yet, at this very moment, 70% of the energy our economy consumes comes from abroad. That is the Spanish paradox in a single sentence: a country that exudes sun and wind but is still 70% dependent on the outside world.
This contradiction, which in normal times would be just another energetic debate, has become an open wound since The Third Gulf War closed the Strait of Hormuzthe artery through which approximately a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited. Is the second major energy shock in just four years and, according to the International Energy Agency, the largest in the history of the oil market. We have the best sun in Europe. And we continue to pay for the war. The report From Fossil Shock to Energy Sovereigntyprepared by the Renovables Foundation and the Meridian Institute, explains why. And the answer is uncomfortable: it is not that we lack resources. It’s just that we are ignoring them.
The underlying problem. Here is the key that many overlook. Electricity consumption in Spain represents only 22% of the country’s total energy demand. The rest—78%—is covered by burning things: petroleum products (54%) and fossil gas (16%). It doesn’t matter how many solar panels we put on the roofs if cars continue to pump gasoline, boilers continue to burn gas and factories continue to throw away fossils.
We are a country that has learned to produce clean electricity extraordinarily well. And then he uses it for a minimal fraction of what he needs.
The three “black holes”. The study identifies three sectors where this disconnection between what we produce and what we consume is most flagrant:
- Mobility: the biggest hole. Transportation consumes 43% of final energy and accounts for 33% of emissions. The sector is responsible for 71.1% of the final consumption of petroleum products in Spainwith diesel as the undisputed king. By the end of 2025, the share of purely electric cars in sales was 8.85%. Of the total fleet in circulation, only 0.8% is electric. The rest continues to fill the tank.
- Homes: heating from the last century. Domestic consumption accounts for 30% of final energy use. Only 24% of the heating in our homes is electric; the rest continue to burn mainly fossil fuels. Gas boilers continue to be the majority in Spain while in the Nordic countries they are already history. We are the country in Europe with the most hours of sunshine and one of the countries that installs the least aerothermal energy.
- The industry: the silent hole. It represents the remaining 27% of final energy use. Its level of electrification has been stuck at around 35% for years, which means that almost two-thirds of the energy that drives our factories is still fossil fuel. It is the least visible sector in public debate and, possibly, the most difficult to transform. Also the one that needs the most time to do it: that is why it is urgent to start now.
The Scandinavian mirror (with nuances). Norway leads the way: by the end of 2025, almost 98% of its new passenger cars sold were pure electric. They have more than 600 heat pumps for every 1,000 homes. Spain is located below 90 aerothermal units per 1,000 homes. The difference is more than 6 to 1. In the sunniest country in continental Europe.
It is worth being honest: Norway finances its transition precisely with the income from the oil it exports. Spain does not have that cushion. But that does not invalidate the direction, but rather forces us to look for our own mechanisms—tax incentives, collective purchasing, European funds—to follow the same path.
So why are we going so slow? The obstacles are real: the entry price of electric vehicles remains high for the average Spanish income, the charging infrastructure unfolds very unevenly throughout the territory, and the housing stock—with many old and poorly insulated buildings—cannot always accommodate a heat pump without major work. Naming these obstacles is not an excuse. It is the condition to overcome them.
What it costs us every year to do nothing. If Spain matched the Norwegian pace for a single year—registering some 950,000 electric cars and installing 820,000 heat pumps—the immediate savings in fossil fuel imports would be between 1,300 and 1,700 million euros. With 100% electrification of mobility sustained for a decade, the reduction would reach 36% in oil and gas imports: 16.4 billion euros per year that would no longer go abroad.
To understand the scale: Spain has strategic reserves for about 92 days of consumption regardless of a single barrel. Three months of autonomy in the face of a crisis that is already lasting longer. Every year that we do not electrify is one more year of fragility that we consciously choose.
And the European irony completes the picture: the EU allocates nearly 88 billion euros annually to subsidize fossil fuels for transport, heating and industry. According to the Meridian Institute, this money would be enough to install more than 10.2 million heat pumps or finance 2.5 million electric cars annually across the continent. Europe has been paying for decades to remain vulnerable.
Same trap, different provider. Four years ago we learned the hard way about the danger of depending on Russian gas and we exchanged it for liquefied gas ships from the United States and Qatar. Today we discovered that we have only replaced one vulnerability with another. As long as we need to burn gas to turn on the light, our pockets will continue to be hostage to geopolitics. The name of the country that supplies does not matter.
In storage, the gap is also striking. Germany and Italy lead European battery deployment, with 6.6 GWh and 4.9 GWh installed by 2025 respectively. Achieving that capacity would allow Spain to eliminate between 5% and 10% of the gas it uses daily to generate electricity. The challenge is not technical: the technology already exists.
A solar superpower that doesn’t know it yet. Technology does not understand latitudes. The same aerothermal equipment that heats a house in the icy winters of Oslo can cool it in the torrid summers of Seville. The electric car that travels through the Norwegian fjords works the same on the A-6 at eight in the morning. There is no physical, geographical or climatic reason why Spain should be the red lantern of European electrification. There are only political reasons and inertia.
The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for months. Every day that passes without plugging in our cars and homes is one more day of dependency that we pay on the bill, at the gas station, and in the volatility of an economy tied to conflicts that will never end. We are a solar superpower. We haven’t decided to be it yet.
Image | Unsplash
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