electricity

While we debate how much electricity AI needs, China already has a data center that runs on clean energy

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The first data center Artificial Intelligence Powered by China’s Wind Power. This is an innovative facility in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in the northwestern part of the country, and has a renewable energy supply that allows it to operate using 100% clean electricity. This means everything a milestone for the Asian country and also for the global industry if we take into account the debate that sparks the enormous environmental impact of these infrastructures. Less emissions into the atmosphere. According to what the media shares South China Morning Postthe IA data center’s renewable energy plant generates 4.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere by 3.65 million tons. Furthermore, the installation reaches a 1.15 in the energy use efficiency indicator (PUE), which measures the entire power of a facility and the energy expenditure of data centers. To put this in context, the industry’s average PUE has been 1.56 over the last 5 years, according to the Global Data Center Survey 2025 by Uptime Institute. A score of 1.0 would be a perfect PUE, according to this organization. Data in the East, Computing in the West. The implementation of this AI data center is part of a broader strategic plan that the Asian country is carrying out to reinforce the infrastructure that supports the development of AI using renewable energy. With the name in English Eastern Data, Western Computing (EDWC), this national megaproject seeks to move data processing from the more developed eastern areas of China to the rural western regions, which have much better and abundant environmental conditions for renewable energy sources. This would be the case of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In this way, the Asian giant plans to face the increase in energy demand in the coming yearswhich may be double in 2030 according to some forecasts. Voracious consumption. The AI data centersdespite being very similar to traditional data centers, work with a greater processing demand, which makes them true energy guzzlers. The ICT consulting company Gartner predicts that the electricity consumption of this type of locations will reach 565 TWh this 2026. Regarding its impact, a recent study carried out by Allianz reveals that the emissions associated with this type of centers reached 286 megatons of carbon dioxide in 2025 and their carbon footprint has been 57% larger than what the IEA had originally calculated. Among the resources that have been used the most, electricity consumption is at the top, responsible for 76% of that footprint. For this reason, the report suggests that moving towards a greener AI will depend, above all, on transforming the energy systems that feed it and betting on renewable resources such as wind energywhich has hardly any water or carbon footprint. And here, what are we doing? The “green” outpost What China is taking is of enormous interest for the rest of the world, especially for our continent if we take into account the decarbonization objectives that come from Brussels. The European Union has already contemplated this type of data centers in some of its general energy regulations, such as the Energy Efficiency Directive (EU) 2023/1791which in its article 12 establishes that those centers with more than 500 kW will be obliged to make their energy consumption public. Other standards, such as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364seek to unify a regime of common assessment for the more than 3,000 installations of this type that exists in the EU. Although there is no shortage of those who see in this regulatory will a reason why Europe could be left behind In the technological race, the truth is that the energy efficiency of data centers, and especially in AI centers, can make a difference. That’s how he thinks Hongpeng LeiHead of the Mitigation Division of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), for whom betting on more sustainable centers is not an obstacle, but “the path to a resilient and competitive digital infrastructure”. Spain, for its part, is one of the European leaders in renewable energy with more than 55% of the electricity produced with this origin in 2025. This obvious advantage gives it a great potential to build a green-powered next-generation data infrastructure. However, it is worth asking whether the Spanish network will be able to keep pace with the installation of these centers and, consequently, satisfy what is clearly going to be a huge energy demand. For now, The project that Microsoft plans to build in Aragon will consume more energy than the entire autonomous communityan example of the energy challenge that accompanies the development of AI. Image | Paul Hanaoka Xataka | “Only behind the United States”: China has achieved a until recently chimerical position in intelligent computing

A startup has created a machine that makes gasoline with air, water and electricity. It is your bet to save the combustion engine

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Aircela, a New York startup, has taught the world a machine capable of manufacturing gasoline using only air, water and renewable electricity. The device, which is not exactly small, has already been shown in operation in several public demonstrations and aims to become an alternative to biofuels and a solution for those who are not yet willing to switch to electric. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What has happened? The company presented its technology in 2025. According to collected Popular Science, its CEO, Eric Dahlgren, wanted to make it clear that it was not a simple concept on paper. “We haven’t built a prototype. We’ve built a machine that works,” he said. The goal of Aircela, founded in 2019 by Eric and Mia Dahlgren, is that this fuel can be poured directly into the tank of any gasoline car without touching the engine. How it works. According to they count those responsible, the process is divided into three phases. First, a fan introduces air into the machine, which passes through a network capable of retaining CO2 and generating a liquid carbon solution. An electrolyzer then separates that solution while producing hydrogen from water. Finally, a compressor combines both elements to create methanol, which is refined into ready-to-use gasoline. The result, as detailed by the company itself in different demonstrations, is a fuel without sulfur, ethanol or heavy metals, compatible with current engines without the need for any modification. Between the lines. Current performance is, for now, modest. And each machine captures around 10 kilos of CO2 per day and thus produces a single gallon of gasoline (about 3.8 liters), with a storage capacity of up to 17 gallons (about 65 liters) in the tank, according to share the middle. This means that we would not be able to fill a car’s tank for several days. Furthermore, just as share In Futurism, the process consumes approximately twice as much energy as is ultimately stored in the fuel, putting its efficiency below 50%. Even so, Aircela maintains that using independent solar panels, the electricity cost would remain below a dollar and a half per gallon. The but. Dahlgren insists that its technology does not compete with the electric car, but rather complements it in those uses where replacing the vehicle is not viable in the short term, such as freight transportation, motor racing or areas without sufficient electrical infrastructure. In fact, the ABC7 media points out that the company has no intention of manufacturing larger machines to produce more fuel, but rather of multiplying the number of units, something similar to how a solar farm works. Who is behind. Aircela has managed to raise nearly $5.5 million to date, according to data from Pitchbook. Its investors include Chris Larsen, founder of Ripple; Jeff Ubben, ExxonMobil activist advisor; and Maersk Growth, the venture capital fund of the Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk. Morten Bo Christiansen, head of energy transition at Maersk, explained in a statement collected by Carbon Herald that the shipping company invested because of the startup’s innovative approach and that it hopes, over time, to go from being an investor to becoming a client. The technology, furthermore, draws directly from the work of physicist Klaus Lackner, pioneer of direct air capture and Dahlgren’s former mentor during his PhD at Columbia University. And now what. There is still no talk of commercial deployment, but the first uses of this machine would be focused on industrial, commercial clients and areas without access to the electrical grid, according to share from Interesting Engineering. Aircela has also negotiated with several car manufacturers, including Jaguar Land Rover, as well as an American manufacturer and another German whose names it did not reveal, according to they claim from Observer. The price of each unit could range between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars, as share from Futurism, although Aircela is confident that mass production will lower the cost over time. Images | Aircela In Xataka | The wildest work in the North Sea: a colossal artificial island where half of Europe wants to plug in to receive energy

“Leaving the air conditioning on all night can cost around a euro in electricity”

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The torrid nights with thermometers that refuse to drop below 25 degrees are already here with us, with several heat waves that we have suffered in a chained way. At these moments you may think about the possibility of using the air conditioning at night, but the fear of the amount that will arrive on the electricity bill is always there. But the reality is that there are situations where this expense is not so exorbitant. Exorbitant consumption. Leaving the air on for eight hours of sleep can cost us around one euro. This is how Carlos Llull, air conditioning technician, explains it. who points out thatin an average scenario with modern equipment, the economic impact is much less than we usually imagine. Through a publication On his Instagram account, which has gone viral, he pointed out that “leaving the air conditioning on for 8 hours at night can cost around one euro in electricity.” And there are more voices. Beyond this phrase that can give us peace of mind in our pockets, Álex Bermúdez, energy expert, reduces This figure is even further stated by stating that, depending on the programmed degrees and the thermal characteristics of the room, the cost of an entire night can be barely around 0.45 euros. But with these gurus announcing this, the question is obvious: How is it possible if a domestic air conditioner usually has an installed power of between 1,000 and 2,000 W? And the answer is in the inverter systems of the most modern equipment. The mathematics. If we use logic, it is quite simple to calculate the consumption of an air conditioner, since it ‘simply’ multiplies the maximum power of the device by the eight hours that it can be kept on during the night. And this would only be correct if you literally lived in an oven without windows and the equipment had to work at its maximum constantly, something that does not happen in most cases. Modern inverter compressors do not work with an obsolete binary on/off system, but their motor is capable of self-regulation when starting at high power to reach the desired temperature, but once achieved, it modulates its work and drastically reduces the revolutions to simply maintain the environment. This means that, during most of the early morning hours, and helped by the fact that the outside temperature also drops, the equipment barely consumes a minimal fraction of its maximum capacity. It depends on several factors. Of course, that euro per night is not a guaranteed flat rate, but rather a measurement that depends on a delicate thermodynamic balance in your home. The first of them is the set temperature, since, as the IDAE runsthe ideal temperature in summer should be between 23 and 26 ºC. Each degree lowered will mean an increase of between 6 and 8% in energy consumption. Insulation is also essential, since a room with thermal leaks, as can occur with old windows, will lose cold quickly, forcing the compressor to exit its maintenance mode and work at higher power throughout the night. The energy rate. This is a fundamental factor, since the final cost of using the air at night will vary depending on whether the rate is in the regulated marketwhere early morning prices can be very low, or if you have a free market rate with an agreed kWh price. Optimize consumption. As the OCU points outit is important not to turn on the air at the minimum temperature to “cool quickly”, since it is inefficient, and that is why it should always be programmed from the beginning to the desired temperature. But in addition, you must take advantage of the ‘ECO’ or ‘Sleep’ mode that many air conditioners already include so that the temperature is gradually adjusted throughout the early morning. Images | Zulfugar Karimov In Xataka | What is energy efficiency and why is it a saving that matters more than ever?

How China is reinventing building air conditioning without using more electricity

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When the heat hits is when those of us who live in historically cool latitudes seriously consider installing large-scale air conditioners and if not, ask France, in whose capital its underground system It seems not to be enough for what is coming our way. But there are entire cities and countries that are ahead of us in that “historically cool Europe” in terms of air conditioning. This is the case of China: there the air conditioning of their buildings goes beyond the simple air conditioner or passive architecture: there are communities that are already cooling their shared outdoor spaces by spraying mist water from the roofs. The rain in Seville Shanxi it’s a wonder. As explains Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Yuncheng, a city in central China’s Shanxi province, there is a residential area where roofs rain: a water spray cooling system capable of reducing surface temperatures by 5 to 8 ° C in a matter of minutes. This other similar spray system called HY-WSWD report drops of up to 10°C in roof temperature and savings of 20-30% in air conditioning consumption. Although it is a political official who shares the system, it does not seem that it is a state air conditioning policy (for the moment), but rather a solution adopted individually by several sprinkler irrigation communities, as they explain in Sina. The principle of operation is essentially the same as a evaporative air conditioner XXL, so it is neither technically revolutionary nor new. In fact, that HY-WSWD is a product that has been on sale since at least 2025. Why is it important. To begin with, because China is the largest consumer of electricity for air conditioning on the planet and its peaks in electricity demand in summer are directly related to the use of air conditioning, as documented by the International Energy Agencywhich also warns that it will get worse: in Asia the demand for refrigeration in Asia will triple before 2050. Any technology that reduces the temperature of the building before using the air conditioning is good news for the grid. As quantifies scienceevaporative cooling systems reduce energy consumption by 30-40% compared to conventional air conditioning systems. Tap to go to the post and watch the video. x Context. We said that the system is not new, it is actually very old (for this type of technology). In the United States there are a patent from the 70s designed for industrial warehouses and discarded for residential use for aesthetic and another from the late 80’s more discreet that contemplates its application in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Furthermore, this evaporative misting in urban areas already applied in hot and dry cities like Phoenix or Tempe (Arizona). Although we are mentioning several American initiatives, the paradoxical reality is that China has its own architectural precedent and it is much older: more than a thousand years ago, the Hanliang Hall of Daming Palace from the Tang dynasty used a circulating cooling system: hydraulic wheels propelled cold water to the roof, letting it fall from the four eaves in the form of a curtain of water that cooled the outer perimeter of the room. In detail. What is striking about the case is not so much the technology, but the scale: covering complete roofs of entire residential blocks to cool the building as a whole and the surrounding areas instead of concentrating the misting in specific points of outdoor comfort, as happens in so many bar terraces in the West or does the Madrid City Council itself, which has installed nebulizers in squares and streets of the city. In this sense, it represents a paradigm shift compared to traditional split when it comes to understanding air conditioning: conventional air conditioning units do not eliminate heat, they move it from the inside to the outside through the compressor, and that residual heat is expelled by thousands of individual units. contributes to intensifying the nocturnal urban heat island. This system that is becoming fashionable in China, on the other hand, intervenes in the building’s own thermal environment (the roof exposed to the sun) before that heat generates a load that the compressor has to expel outwards again. Thus, the thermal difference between inside and outside is reduced at the source: the microdroplets expose a lot of surface area to the air, accelerating evaporation, which extracts latent heat from the roof and the surrounding air without the need for refrigerants. Yes, but. The kryptonite of evaporative air conditioners is the humidityor in other words, this system is only effective in locations with dry climates such as Shanxi, which has a semi-arid continental climate. Of course, in cities in humid southern China like Shenzhen it would be much less effective. In humid and hot environments, high temperatures become a real nightmare and evaporative air conditioners do not work: they raise the relative humidity, worsening thermal comfort. On the other hand, this is a system that continuously consumes water, a precious commodity that is scarce in some places, which poses a dilemma between energy savings and water stress. In Xataka | Best quality-price air conditioners 2026. Which one to buy and seven recommended models for less than 800 euros In Xataka | Air conditioning is the new great political weapon in France: why environmentalists and the extreme right are fighting over it Cover | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China via Twitter

you only need air, water and electricity

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In an ideal world, future lunar colonists would feed of what the earth gives. It is not feasible to carry very heavy loads there, so once the supplies are exhausted, it would be perfect to be able to grow more. The problem is that “the soil” on the Moon is the lunar regolith and its ingredients are much less conducive to agriculture than the soil on our planet. For this reason, a team of Japanese scientists has been searching for a good lunar fertilizer that would make this regolith able to host plant life. It seems that they have finally found one and the best thing is that, to make it, they only need atmospheric air. Green plasma to obtain a lunar fertilizer. These scientists, from Tohoku University and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), They have obtained their lunar fertilizer with only three ingredients: atmospheric air, plasma and water. Upon contact with plasma (an electrically ionized gas), the nitrogen and oxygen present in the atmospheric air react to give rise to dinitrogen pentaoxide. Afterwards, this dissolves in water to transform into nitrate, a nitrogen ion very necessary for plant growth. Fertile terrestrial soils are usually rich in this ion, so plants absorb and fix it directly. If it is not present or scarce, as occurs in the lunar regolith, should be added through fertilizers such as the one obtained with this process. Be careful with the atmosphere. In that same ideal world, the unlimited air of the lunar atmosphere should do. Unfortunately, the moon does not have an atmosphere per se, so the atmospheric air that will be introduced into the habitable rooms of the lunar bases would be used. It’s not an ideal world, but it’s still a good option. A very efficient process. It is true that there is already an industrial process to fix nitrogen from atmospheric air: the Haber-Bosch reaction. The problem is that, with it, a lot of energy is spent. It is totally unviable on the Moon. On the other hand, the process of obtaining lunar fertilizer using plasma is very energy efficient. Less than 100 watts are used and it is not necessary to resort to fossil fuels or anything similar. Well nourished rice plants. To check if the lunar fertilizer works, these scientists tested it on a regolith simulator, on which they planted rice seedlings. The results were very good. To begin with, the inhospitable alkaline pH of the regolith was greatly improved, decreasing from 9.09 to 6.76. Certain nutrients that normally cannot be absorbed directly from the regolith, such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, were also extracted more efficiently. Instead, toxic ions, such as Al3+, were trapped in the lunar dust instead of passing into the plants. With all this, the rice grew much better than when the regolith simulant was irrigated with pure water, without lunar fertilizer. Other benefits. In this and other studies by these scientists It has been seen that lunar fertilizer not only provides the necessary nutrients for plants. It also improves plant growth, boosts their immune system and protects them against some of the risks associated with microgravity. Utility beyond the Moon. Actually our own planet It is full of infertile land. Therefore, these scientists believe that this highly efficient fertilizer can also be useful on Earth. After all, the plants are the same here as on the Moon and the need to save energy also prevails down here. Although these types of studies are carried out with an eye toward future lunar bases, we must not leave aside what is already under our feet. Our soils need it too. Image | Magnificent | Toshiro Kaneko In Xataka | The Iran war has disrupted the global fertilizer trade. And that’s bad news for the shopping cart.

Where electricity comes from in each country in the world, told on an essential map

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To stop climate change, it is essential to “clean” electricity, that is, decarbonize it to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. The reason is clear: the electricity sector is to blame for approximately a third of global emissions, according to IEA data for 2025. What this world map does is shed light on the origin of the light that reaches us when we press the plug because knowing where the electricity comes from in each country is the first step to knowing what needs to be changed and how long it takes to achieve it. This map of Our World in Data sample for each state what is the main source of electrical energy for the period 2024/25. Behind this data visualization initiative is the University of Oxford and for its preparation uses information from Global Electricity Review Ember. There are 215 countries in their database, although for this representation they use 91 states that represent 93% of global electricity demand. Viewing and understanding the map is simple: one color for each dominant technology: orange is gas, gray is coal, blue is water, purple is nuclear, yellow is solar. In addition, it offers the percentage of that dominant technology to know how much this source represents in the state total. This point is important because a state can be colored orange because gas accounts for 40% of the total even though it has 35% renewables in total. It is a map of the present, not of how we want it to be or where the trend is going. The first thing we see on the map is that andCoal remains the largest single source of electricity generation in the world, a ranking that has been leading for more than half a century and that in this visualization represents 35% of the global generation. Of course, it is the lowest percentage since the founding of the IEA in 1974. One of the reasons why the global electricity sector continues to have so much weight in emissions is precisely because of the leadership of coal. Another reason is gas. In fact, in 2024 fossil fuels still generated almost 60% of the world’s electricity. Broadly speaking, the map shows how gas is hegemonic in rich countries in the northern hemisphere while coal dominates in Asia. In South America and parts of Africa, hydroelectricity is historically what makes the difference. However, Europe is a true rainbow, the result of decades of political strategies and investments. In fact, the big green shoot for the decarbonization of electricity goes through renewable energieswhich in 2025 surpassed coal for the first time in history: solar, wind, hydroelectric and others together produced more than a third of the world’s electricity. The good news is that almost all of the increase in electricity demand in 2024 was covered by clean sources. But there is one that shines with its own light: solar energy, which in 2024 surpassed wind power for the first time globally. Two states that are true powerhouses in solar generation are Spain with 22% and Chile with 25%. What is the main source of electricity for the countries of the world. Our World in Data What the map doesn’t say Our World in data map has small print: While it is true that renewables have grown, so have coal and gas. Thus, in 2024, developing Asian countries they consumed 80% of all the coal used for electricity in the world, when in 2000 it accounted for 40%. And there is a problem that the map leaves out: there are hundreds of millions of people who They do not have access to electricity. More specifically, 730 million in 2024. Of all of them, Africa concentrates 80%. These countries will have to build their network from scratch and the million-dollar question will be whether they will have the financing to do it with renewables or will they rely on the classic fossils, which are cheaper and more readily available. Another important fact that this world map omits is where does the fuel come from. That is, a country colored orange may depend on a neighbor with whom it has a strained relationship. Without going any further, in 2021 45% of imported gas by the EU came from Russia. When war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, that dependency made electricity more expensive overnight. Europe reacted, but at what price: now imported LNG it is more expensive. It is not the only one: Southeast Asia too suffers from energy dependence of the coal that matters. In Xataka | How much electricity each country on the map produces with renewable energy, displayed on a graph In Xataka | The most fascinating map you will see today: the entire electrical infrastructure of the planet, in an interactive infographic Cover | Our World in data

The Canary Islands have just turned on the first platform that generates electricity by “boiling” the ocean

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They have been promising us for decades that the ocean would be the battery of the future. The difference now is that someone has finally plugged in the cable. The British company Global OTEC has installed in the waters of the Canary Islands the world’s first floating platform capable of extracting energy directly from the heat of the sea. It is not a concept. It is not a simulation. It is there, in the Atlantic, working. The end of intermittency. Unlike wind or solar energy, which are dependent on weather conditions, the ocean offers a constant and reliable source 24 hours a day. It’s what experts call “base load power.” Until now, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technology had been tested in terrestrial environments. Until now, the main obstacle to bringing this technology to a full scale was infrastructure. The terrestrial prototypes needed huge pipes to pump cold water from the depths to the coast: kilometers of installation, exorbitant costs. For this reason, Global OTEC’s commitment has been to move the platform directly to the sea, eliminating that route. The result: 80% less pipe. And a model that, for the first time, seems truly scalable. A closed circuit that “recycles” the liquid. The system literally takes advantage of the temperature difference that exists between the surface of the sea and its dark depths. The mechanism is an extremely ingenious closed circuit: Evaporation: The warm water on the surface heats a special liquid that, due to its chemical characteristics, boils quickly. Generation: When boiling, this liquid is transformed into steam, which pushes a turbine that, when rotating, generates electricity. Cycle recycling: For the system to never stop, the vapor needs to return to its liquid state. This is where the newly installed deep pipeline comes into play, sucking in very cold water from the deep sea to cool the vapor and restart the cycle. In addition to generating energy completely free of carbon emissions, the installation takes up little space and is silent. It even offers an invaluable additional benefit to island ecosystems: freshwater desalination. An ecological lifesaver. The project was not born thinking about feeding large continental electrical networks. Its objective is more concrete and, in some ways, more urgent. The European consortium PLOTEC, which finances this development, is targeting Small Island Developing States, the so-called SIDS. These are regions that today depend on polluting and expensive diesel generators, and that also fit squarely in the hurricane belt. That is why the platform has been specifically designed to withstand extreme tropical storms. The Canary Islands, the great laboratory of Europe. That this world milestone has occurred in Spain is no coincidence. The platform has been installed on the Canary Islands Ocean Platform (PLOCAN). As explained by Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universitiesit is an infrastructure managed by a consortium financed in equal parts by the State and the Government of the Canary Islands. This enclave has become a true focus of international technological attraction. According to a statement from PLOCANits waters not only host thermal projects, but at the end of 2026 they will also host the European WHEEL project, led by the Spanish engineering company ESTEYCO. This floating offshore wind energy demonstrator reinforces the role of the Canary Islands as a strategic enclave and positions the region as one of the main European poles for the development and validation of technologies. offshore. Next stop: the commercial jump. With the ocean platform already installed and technical validation underway in the Atlantic, the horizon for this technology seems clear. “This is the moment when OTEC technology moves away from controlled environments and into the real world,” says Dan Grech, founder and CEO of Global OTEC. Its next objective is to install the first commercial energy module in Hawaii, an island market with all the conditions that this technology needs. The company estimates that there are more than 25 GW of diesel capacity on tropical islands that could be candidates for this transition. Although it is important not to lose sight of the fact that going from prototype to commercial scale has historically been the valley of death for many promising energy technologies. The learning curve that Grech compares to that of solar or wind took decades to lower costs to competitive levels. That being said, the platform is in the water. And that, in this sector, is already a lot. Image | Global OTEC Xataka | Every year millions of birds die because of wind turbines. The solution: paint them like poisonous snakes

list with the eight that use the most electricity and their average quantities

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Let’s tell you What are the appliances that consume the most? in your home, so that you can keep it in mind and thus be able to use them with caution. Because we have examples like how your oven can spend about 65 refrigerators running at the same time, and they are things that are worth knowing. Of course, you should know that although they are appliances that consume a lot of power, they do it in a timely manner. They are not appliances that you will always have on, although that is precisely why it is advisable to know this consumption for those moments when we may be thinking about whether to use them or not. Appliances that consume the most at home Here you have the list made with different calculations of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)in addition to energy marketing companies such as Repsol either Naturgy. You must know that They are hourly consumption rangeswhat they consume every hour that you have them on. In addition, you should also know that the consumption range may vary depending on the appliance. Because this is the average, but then other factors such as the age of the device, its efficiency or its features can cause its consumption to vary significantly. In any case, here is the list: Ovens: between 2,000-3,000 watts Vitroceramics and induction hobs: between 1,500-6,500 watts Electric radiators: between 1,500-2,500 watts clothes irons: between 1,500-3,500 watts Electric thermoses: between 1,500-2,500 watts hair dryers: between 1,500-2,000 watts Cooking plates: between 1,500-2,000 watts Electric fryers: between 1,500-2,500 watts To give you context, a refrigerator with a high efficiency model can consume between 100 and 300 kWh per yearalthough other older or inefficient models may exceed 600kWh. Come on, they’re in something like between 30 and 90 watts per hour. Although in the long run this may cause it to consume more than others, it is advisable to take into account the consumption of other appliances that are not always on, so that you can better calculate when to use them depending on the rates you have contracted and their schedules.

This is the Basque project that wants to convert waves into cheap electricity

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On May 12, a 42-meter steel buoy was towed from the Bilbao estuary to the open sea off Armintza. It is not the first time he has made that trip. It already did it in 2016, endured three winters with waves of up to 14 meters, generated electricity and returned to port with something equally valuable: data. Now it comes back improved. The Basque firm IDOM has released the Marmok A-5 again in the Cantabrian Sea, and this time he knows exactly what he has to prove. It’s not just another test. The promise of wave energy is not small. As he explains to the magazine Renewable Energies IDOM wave engineer, Patxi Etxaniz: “The amount of resources available worldwide is brutal; if we are able to obtain that energy in an economically profitable way, we have solved the global energy problem.” The problem, until now, has always been the same: extract it without ruining yourself in the attempt. The race to achieve this is fought by just a dozen or fifteen actors around the world: the Swedish CorPower, several Scottish engineering companies, companies from France, Wales, Finland and Italy, and Asian actors from Korea, China and Japan who, in the words of Etxaniz, “do not publish anything, they are very discreet.” IDOM is already in that group. The Cantabrian piston. The Marmok is, in essence, a buoy with a cylinder of water inside. As detailed Europe Wavewhen a wave arrives, that column of water rises and falls like a piston, compressing and expanding the air in an upper chamber. In this way, this air flow moves a turbine that generates electricity and, finally, an underwater cable takes it to land. The technology is called OWC – oscillating water column – and the new Marmok has improved it on three fronts, according to BiMEP: new turbine with controllable blades, intelligent control system with onboard batteries, and radically simplified anchoring. This latest change was born directly from one of the most costly and dangerous problems of the first campaign. As Etxaniz explained: “The anchorage we had worked well, but we needed a lot of divers, and they are expensive, and their work is dangerous: underwater, with ropes with a lot of tension, one of them whips you and you can have a serious problem.” Problem detected, problem solved. In this new campaign, in addition, the Marmok will connect to the grid for the first time through the HarshLab platform, a floating laboratory integrated into the BiMEP infrastructure, which will allow both to evacuate the energy generated and to monitor the behavior of the system in real time. Twelve years of work. The Marmok did not appear overnight. Its first models were tested at the El Pardo Hydrodynamic Experience Center in 2012. From there they went to the Tecnalia laboratories, then to the BiMEP offshore facilities in Mutriku, and finally to the open sea in October 2016, where it became the first wave energy converter connected to the electrical grid in Spain and one of the first in the world. Behind that journey was the team from the Basque company Oceantec. IDOM saw the potential, hired them en bloc and integrated them into its structure. More than a decade of work, financing from the Basque Energy Agency and support from the European innovation program EuropeWave later, what began as a laboratory prototype is today, according to BiMEPa device ready to advance towards pre-commercial phases. As Borja de Miguel, project manager at IDOM, summarizes: in statements collected by Europe Wave: “Achieving secure installation and grid connection at BiMEP is a key step in bringing wave energy closer to commercial reality.” What’s coming Over the next few months, the team will verify the performance of the new systems and progressively increase operations. The data collected by this campaign will serve two purposes: demonstrate results to EuropeWave and decide what the next phase of development will look like. The objective is not academic. It means lowering costs until a Cantabrian wave can compete, in price, with any other energy source. There is no date for that yet. “It will depend on the investment,” says Etxaniz. But the window exists, the group of applicants is small, and Basque engineering has been learning to read the sea for more than ten years. The Marmok already knows how to survive three stormy winters. Now you have to learn how to do it cheaply. Image | EuropeWave Xataka | For years, wave energy was the ugly duckling of renewables. AI and data centers have taken a turn

VAT on electricity returns to 21%

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VAT on electricity and gas returns to 21% as of June 1. That’s the news of the day, and before you put your hands on your head thinking about your next bill, breathe, because there is a lot of fabric to cut here. You’re probably wondering: why is this happening? If we have been hearing for months that we have a “renewable shield” that protects us from the global energy crisis, what the hell has happened to give us back the fiscal axe? The short answer is that the system has worked so well that, paradoxically, it has taken away our aid. Spain is facing a strange energy and economic paradox: the good health of our generation system and the moderation of inflation have caused the defense mechanism designed by the Government to blow up. The result is bittersweet and frustrating for the average consumer: we generate the cheapest energy in Europe, but the tax burden on your next bill will return to pre-crisis normality. The CPI trap. The Government has not removed the aid because of a last-minute whim, but because the law itself required it to be done. The anti-crisis decree had a catch or “kill clause”: stated that, if energy prices stopped skyrocketing and did not rise more than 15% compared to April of the previous year, the tax reductions would be automatically canceled in June. And that is exactly what has happened. Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) show that the shield has worked. General inflation has slowed to 3.2%. The person largely responsible for this relief? The cheaper energy in our homes: electricity has fallen by 4.3% and gas by 9.6% compared to last year. As prices have shown these negative rates, far from exceeding that legal limit of 15%, the rule has fulfilled its threat. The system has made our energy so cheap that, by law, we lose the exceptional 0.5% bonus on the special tax on electricity and we have to pay VAT on electricity and gas again at 21%. But will the “renewable shield” be of any use? The Ministry of Economy sticks out its chest and celebrates that the moderation of prices demonstrates the capacity of the “renewable shield” and confirms that the Spanish system can absorb external shocks such as the war in Iran. In fact, Spain is resisting much better than its neighbors because the share of clean energy in our generation mix already exceeds 60%. Unlike countries like Italy or Germany, which depend heavily on the gray fringe of fossil generation, Spain’s massive wind and solar deployment sinks wholesale prices during the day. We have even seen historical milestones where the wholesale market has set negative prices of up to -10 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). However, why don’t we notice this renewable miracle on the bill? The wholesale cost of energy represents only 41% of an average household bill. The rest of the amount they swallow it network tolls (23%), VAT (17%), system charges (10%) and commercial margins. Cheap wholesale electricity is necessary, but insufficient if tolls and taxes continue to suffocate the final bill. Be careful when you go to get gas. The INE details that “fuels and lubricants for personal vehicles” They experienced a year-on-year increase in prices of more than 15% (15.5%), dragged down by a huge inflation of 28.2% in diesel. By exceeding the legal threshold of 15%, gasoline will maintain its 10% VAT reduction and aid for professional diesel, at least until June 30. The danger of summer. The withdrawal of part of the light tax shield will be immediately noticeable. According to the calculations of Francisco Valverde, expert analyst in the electricity market in statements for The Newspaperthe return to normal taxes will mean a bill increase of around 15% for all consumers in June. For an average customer, this will imply an additional payment of between 8 and 9 euros, while for gas the upward impact will be between 9% and 10%. But the horizon hides a greater challenge: summer. The analyst Antonio Aceituno warns that our current “hydraulic shield” will begin to give way. With heat waves, solar panels lose efficiency, the use of air conditioning increases demand and expensive gas combined cycles will have to be turned on to avoid blackouts. If the conflict in the Middle East persists, forecasts suggest that the wholesale bill could jump above 100 euros per MWh in June, reaching around 120 euros in the middle of summer. The cracks that no one wants to see. To understand why the renewable miracle does not end up sticking in your pocket, you have to look at the structural flaws that experts denounce: An inelastic and “passive” demand: Joaquín Coronado highlights a huge dysfunction in our market. When electricity reaches ridiculous prices of €0.51/MWh, Spanish consumers do not react by consuming more to take advantage of the bargain. By not using that cheap energy, it ends up being exported by French and Portuguese agents, which paradoxically drags our prices up through European coupling. “All against all” in the sector: According to Coronadothe actors in the Spanish electricity sector are immersed in an internal war, blaming each other and resenting cooperation. The expert suggests that Spain should rethink its institutional architecture, looking to the United Kingdom, where a system operator has been created (National Energy System Operator) with operational independence to separate network planning from asset ownership. The “night fissure”: The transition is incomplete. As evening falls, solar energy disappears and we depend on gas again. Without investments in mass storage systems and batteries to store the day’s excess megawatts, we will continue to be hostage to volatility every time the sun sets. The hidden price of the miracle. The Government’s response plan fulfilled its main objective: to cushion the war and save household purchasing power. We have managed to decouple our system from the worst international gas whims and avoided fuel inflation that would be close to 28.9% without aid. But June … Read more

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