electricity

Europe produces more clean electricity than fossil electricity for the first time. The hard part starts now

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For years, the European energy transition advanced without completely displacing fossil fuels. Last year marked that turning point. According to the report European Electricity Review 2026wind and solar generated 30% of EU electricity in 2025, surpassing coal, gas and oil combined for the first time, which fell to 29%. As Dr. Petrovich explains by Emberwe are facing record growth. It is not normal to go from a 20% to 30% quota in just five years, but the numbers are there. The energy map is changing: there are now 14 EU countries where wind and sun generate more than gas or coal. In this scenario, Spain, Greece or Hungary already play in the league of solar powers. Beyond statistics. The milestone does not imply that Europe has left fossil fuels behind or that gas has disappeared from the system, but rather that it changes the hierarchy of the electricity mix. For the first time, variable renewable energies come to occupy the center of the electricity mix, while fossils are relegated to a technical and security support role. According to Emberrenewable energies as a whole contributed 48% of the EU’s electricity in 2025, practically half of the total, a figure that remained stable even in a year marked by adverse weather conditions, with less wind and less rain than usual. Coal, the most polluting fuel in the system, continues its withdrawal. In 2024 it fell to 9.2% of the European electricity mix, a historical minimum compared to the almost 25% it represented a decade ago. Gas, for its part, rose slightly compared to 2024, although it is still 18% below its 2019 maximum, confirming that its role in the system is increasingly residual. This rebalancing has consequences that range beyond the energy mix: Dependence on imported fossil fuels continues to be the main source of price instability and strategic vulnerability in Europe, even outside the climate debate. Five years that changed everything. The sorpasso – as it has begun to be called in the sector – is not the result of a mild winter or a stroke of meteorological luck. It is the consequence of sustained growth, especially in solar energy, during the last decade, accelerated very notably in the last five years. According to the reportsolar generation grew by 20.1%, this being the fourth consecutive year with increases of more than 20%, an unprecedented growth rate in European energy history. In absolute terms, solar reached 369 terawatt hours (TWh), more than double that of 2020, and the annual increase in 2025 alone is equivalent to the electrical production of three French nuclear reactors. A dizzying growth. This expansion responds mainly to the installed capacity. In 2025, 65.1 GW of new solar power was added in the EU, distributed almost equally between large plants and self-consumption on rooftops. All community countries increased their solar production, and in several of them—Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands—the sun already provides more than 20% of national electricity. As for wind power, although more affected by the weather conditions at the beginning of the year, it remains the second largest electricity source in the EU, with 17% of the total, above gas. The system, therefore, begins to rely structurally on variable renewables, something unthinkable just a decade ago. The reverse of success: when gas continues to set the price. Despite the historic advance of wind and solar, 2025 made it clear that gas continues to have a disproportionate weight in the European electricity system, especially in price formation. According to the think tank, gas-fired electricity generation increased by 8% in the EU, mainly to compensate for the drop in hydroelectric energy caused by the drought, and this greater use of gas raised the electricity sector’s import bill to 32 billion euros, 16% more than the previous year. The impact was especially visible in the electricity markets. Ember detects that price spikes They are concentrated in the hours with the highest gas use, while the hours with abundant solar and wind tend to make electricity cheaper. In 21 European countries, wholesale prices rose in 2025, driven almost exclusively by these fossil time slots. This is where the paradox of the current system: although gas no longer dominates by volume, it continues to set the marginal price of the market at critical moments. In other words, despite the oversupply, the price structure continues to be conditioned by fossil fuel when there is a lack of wind or sun. The new energy frontier. Ember’s report devote an entire chapter to what it considers the next big front of the transition: storage and system flexibility. Without these pieces, he warns, the sorpasso runs the risk of remaining a statistical victory. This was one of the large deficits of the European transition: investing massively in generation without doing so at the same pace in networks and storage. Batteries are now emerging as the piece that connects renewable success with stable prices and security of supply. Last year, the EU exceeded 10 GW of large-scale batteries in operation for the first time, more than double that of 2023. In addition, there is a portfolio of projects that could raise that figure above 40 GW if fully implemented. The first signs are already visible in countries like Italy, where batteries have begun to cover part of the demand during peak gas hours, reducing prices and displacing fossil generation. Physical bottlenecks: European infrastructure. It is not just a question of how much energy is generated, but where it enters and how it circulates within the continent. Europe has reduced its direct dependence of Russian gas, but continues to face physical limitations in terminals, transportation networks and cross-border connections. This substitution of Russian gas has been slowed by the slowness in the construction of critical facilities, such as regasification terminals and high-capacity networks, and by the insufficient interconnection between national electrical systems. This bottleneck explains why countries with abundant renewable production, like Spain, often cannot easily export that surplus, or why the European … Read more

Nuclear energy has generated electricity for decades. China is reinventing it for something else: the industry

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For decades, nuclear power plant cooling towers symbolized one thing: electricity. However, off the coast of Jiangsu province, China has just begun a maneuver that will change the usefulness of fission. It’s no longer just about turning on light bulbs; It is about feeding, with clean steam, the voracious thermal heart of heavy industry. The first concrete of a new era. According to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)the first concrete was poured for the nuclear island of Unit 1 of the Xuwei project. This act is not just another procedure, it is the first nuclear project to break ground in the inaugural year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, symbolizing a strategic shift towards diversified energy applications. The project, developed by CNNC Suneng Nuclear Power, is strategically located near the Lianyungang petrochemical hub, an area that requires a staggering 13,000 tons of steam every hour to maintain its operations. The concept of the super boiler. Xuwei’s great innovation lies in its technical architecture. As explained by Global Timesthe project is the first in the world to couple two different generations of reactors to maximize thermal efficiency: The Hualong One (Generation III): Two units of this pressurized water reactor (PWR) provide the base heat to convert demineralized water to saturated steam. The High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR – Generation IV): This unit acts as a “super boiler”. The steam produced by the Hualong One is superheated a second time by the primary steam of the HTGR, reaching the necessary extreme temperatures. for complex chemical processes such as petroleum refining, distillation and cracking petrochemical. This “double coupling” system allows, according to NucNetthat the plant will be useful for applications ranging from refining to desalination and steel production, sectors that have traditionally depended exclusively on fossil fuels. Cleaner than coal. The urgency of this project responds to a critical climate need. The petrochemical industry is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize due to its constant heat demand. The figures provided by CNNC yvsupported by media such as World News Nuclear They are compelling: once the first phase is operational, the plant will supply 32.5 million tons of industrial steam per year. This will reduce standard coal consumption by 7.26 million tons and avoid the emission of 19.6 million tons of CO2 annually. Advances in cutting-edge technology. To manage the complexity of joining two very different types of reactors, Chinese engineers have turned to Artificial Intelligence and robotics. The design team used hierarchical digital simulations to create the system’s control logic, allowing heat and electricity to be balanced based on grid and industry demand. In the field of construction, progress is not minor. Li Quan, project manager, explained to Global Times that automatic metal active gas (MAG) welding systems with intelligent laser tracking are being used, a technology three times more efficient than manual welding. In addition, they emphasize that the localization rate of equipment (100% Chinese technology) exceeds 95%, promoting a national high-tech supply chain. Towards a global standard? Beyond its borders, China sees Xuwei as an export model. The CNNC has described the project as a “Chinese solution” for the low-carbon transformation of energy-intensive industries around the world. The goal is to demonstrate that heavy industrial development does not have to be tied to coal smokestacks. This move aligns with the 2025 white paper titled “China’s plans and solutions for carbon neutrality”which advocates for safe and orderly development of nuclear energy not only for the electrical gridbut for clean heating and desalination. The European contrast. While China is betting on nuclear energy to power heavy industry, in Europe the approach to waste heat is taking a digital path. Cities like Helsinki are finding an unexpected source of heat: data centers. As we have explained in Xatakacompanies like Telia or Microsoft are recovering up to 90% of the heat generated by their servers to inject it into district heating networks (district heating). A single data center in Finland can heat up to 20,000 homes. Although the scale is different – ​​China seeks heat to make steel and plastics, while Finland seeks shelter for its citizens – the philosophy is identical: in a world in climate crisis, wasting heat is a luxury that no one can afford anymore. Both models demonstrate that the energy transition depends on taking advantage of every calorie produced, whether it comes from a uranium core or an artificial intelligence processor. The end of thermal waste. The start of work in Xuwei marks a turning point. As the CNNC analysis concludesthe project is a “strong and clear beat” towards deep decarbonization. China is trying to show that nuclear power is the missing piece of the puzzle to reconcile mass industrial production with net-zero emissions goals. If Xuwei’s model is successful, the image of the nuclear power plant as an isolated island that only produces electricity will become history. The future of the atom seems to lie, rather, in its ability to become the invisible “heat engine” of modern civilization. Image | CNNC Xataka | In Finland they already know how to deal with excess heat from data centers: convert it into district heating

Satya Nadella knows that AI now has “social permission” to burn electricity. And also that everything has a limit

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From time to time, a number of billionaire people get together to discuss topics that are considered important. This time he played at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, has issued a warning clear about the use of artificial intelligence and its excessive energy consumption. And for the executive, this technology only makes sense if it generates a real and positive impact on society, otherwise, “social legitimacy” would be lost to allocate scarce resources, such as energy, to its development. Energy. It is no surprise that AI data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water. They already did it before dedicating themselves purely to the operation of AI, but now that expense has more than multiplied. A while ago, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, gave some estimated figures about ChatGPT’s power consumption, stating that it used about 0.34 watt-hours for each response generated. On a larger scale, the combined electricity consumption of Microsoft and Google exceeded that of more than 100 countries in 2023, according to the analysis by Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview. The demand is not only energy, since a disproportionate volume of production of critical components is being allocated towards the development of projects related to AI, such as is happening with RAM in the world. Nadella’s warning. During his intervention In Davos, the CEO of Microsoft said that “We will quickly lose even the social permission to take something like energy, which is a scarce resource, and use it to generate these tokens, if these tokens are not improving outcomes in health, education, public sector efficiency or private sector competitiveness.” The CEO of Microsoft assured that the ultimate goal must be “to use AI to change tangible results in people, communities, countries and industries.” Otherwise, “none of this makes sense.” Tokens as a new global currency. Nadella mentioned in the conversation the “tokens” as the new currency among big technology companies. In this area, tokens are the basic processing units that users of AI models purchase to execute tasks. According to the CEO, “GDP growth anywhere will be directly correlated” with the cost of energy used in AI. In this way, Nadella says between the lines that if a country can produce tokens more cheaply, it will have a competitive advantage. The medical example. Among the specific applications that Nadella sees as valuable is the use of AI in the healthcare sector. He mentioned doctors who can spend more time with their patients while AI transcribes consultations, enters data into medical records systems and assigns correct billing codes. The risk of bubble. Nadella also addressed growing warnings about a possible AI bubble. For him, it will only be a bubble if everything remains in partnerships between technology companies and infrastructure spending. “A telltale sign that it’s a bubble would be if all we talk about are tech companies,” pointed out in his conversation with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. The executive was confident that AI will “bend the productivity curve” and bring global economic growth, not just driven by capital expenditures. Mass adoption necessary. Microsoft’s CEO also insists that companies must start using AI on a large scale, describing it as a “cognitive amplifier” that grants “access to infinite minds.” It calls for workers to develop AI skills, similar to “how they master Excel to improve their employability.” Microsoft plans to invest 80 billion dollars in building AI data centers, with 50% of that spending outside the United States. Cover image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and World Economic Forum In Xataka | Europe is discovering right now that the US is not the partner it thought. And that is a problem in AI.

2025 broke the dream of cheap electricity

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At the beginning of 2025, Spain’s energy story was one of absolute success, coming to work only with renewables. But the “Great Blackout” of April 28 threw a jug of cold water on the country’s climate ambitions: greenhouse gas emissions rose 0.6%breaking a years-long trend. How is it possible to emit more when we have more solar panels than ever? The answer lies in a technical paradox: the Spanish electrical system entered into “reinforced mode”prioritizing the stability of gas over the cleanliness of renewables. Gas as a “bodyguard.” After that incident, Red Eléctrica (REE) adopted a “reinforced operating mode”. This adjustment involves intervening in the market to ensure that there are always “firm” plants (gas, nuclear and hydraulic) operating to give inertia and stability to the network tension. The problem is that this decision has marginalized cheap energy. As detailed by the Sustainability Observatory (OS)gas consumption in combined cycles shot up 26% after the blackout. Spain has been burning gas preventively to prevent the system from collapsing, even at times when the sun was abundant. This has caused the curtailment (clean energy wasted because the grid cannot manage it) will triple, going from 1.8% to 7.2% between May and July. The third “rate” in history. This forced dependence on gas has directly hit the pocketbook. According to a study by Facuathe electricity bill for an average user with a regulated tariff (PVPC) became 15.5% more expensive in 2025. With an average annual bill of 975.88 euros, 2025 is the third most expensive year in history, only behind the years of the energy crisis due to the War in Ukraine. The maintenance of this “anti-blackout insurance” has cost 422 million euros in technical extra costs, which companies like Iberdrola they have already started to have an impact on the renewed contracts of its clients. So why is there more energy but the price goes up? Herein lies the great technical paradox of last year. Spain installed 8,852 MW of new renewable power last year, according to REE data. However, the network is saturated since 83.4% of the electrical nodes no more connections allowed. The root of the problem is unbalanced investment. While Europe invests 70 cents in networks for every euro in renewables, Spain only invest 30. In addition, the country ranks 13th in battery capacity in Europe. Without storage, the system is rigid: if the sun hits suddenly, only the gas can react in time. Even domestic self-consumption failed in the April blackout: only 33% of homes they have batterieswhich left millions of users in the dark despite having their panels at full capacity. It is not the only one responsible for the emissions. The OS report points out that the rebound in emissions It’s not just electric. Spain approached 100 million of visitors in 2025, skyrocketing the consumption of kerosene (+5%) and gasoline (+8%). Added to this is a year of climatic extremes: fires They burned 400,000 hectaresreleasing 19 million tons of CO2, four times more than the average. Horizon 2026. The immediate future is not simple. For this new year, an increase in tolls and charges from the Government of up to 12%. In addition, the system faces a new challenge: the massive installation of data centers. In Aragon, these complexes are expected to consume so much energy that will further strain the network. To avoid collapse, the Government has activated “capacity markets”. Basically, gas plants will be paid simply for “being there” and not closing, an expensive but necessary insurance until the planned 2,600 MW of batteries or the synchronous compensators that promise to provide stability without burning methane are deployed. Europe’s laboratory. At the international level, Spain has assumed the vice presidency of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to lead the global transition in the face of the departure of the US under Trump’s mandate. But political leadership contrasts with internal fragility. Spain has shown that it is possible to expel coal from the system, but also that the abundance of cheap energy is useless if there are no cables to transport it or batteries to store it. As a source in the sector succinctly summarizes:: “The mistake was not putting up panels, but forgetting about the networks.” Without this investment, gas will continue to be the owner of the Spanish night and responsible for the electricity bill continuing to break records that no one wants to boast about. Image | freepik and Anton Osolev Xataka | The “reinforced mode” that prevents a new blackout will cost us 422 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

Spain produces more electricity than it can manage

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Spain has gone from being the renewable envy of Europe to becoming a case study in the dangers of saturation. This summer, the country reached a historic milestone where the combined generation of sun and wind exceeded 10,500 GWh per month. This disconnection has caused an unexpected effect: there is so much electricity that its value has plummeted. For companies that invested millions in solar panels, the business has ceased to be profitable, transforming what was a success story into a “saturation crisis” that puts the Spanish market in check. The “discount” market and its collapse. The current outlook for solar park owners is bleak. “It’s discount season,” says Carmen Izquierdo, co-founder of nTeaser, speaking to the Financial Times. The saturation is such that operational solar plants have seen their valuation fall from €916,000/MW at the beginning of 2024 to just €648,000/MW today. The situation is more dramatic in “ready to build” projects (with land and permits but without work). As detailed by the Financial Timesthe market is so flooded that some developers, desperate to avoid government sanctions for not being able to execute agreed construction plans, have gone so far as to offer projects for the symbolic value of 1 euro. This situation has led to a wave of fire sales or liquidation sales, where companies sacrifice part of their portfolios to try to save the rest of their capital. Anatomy of a bottleneck. Why does the bill continue to rise if there is too much energy? The answer lies in outdated infrastructure. According to an analysis by EmberSpain only invests 30 cents in electrical networks for every euro allocated to renewables, a figure that is less than half of the European average. Added to this lack of investment is the impact of the “Great Blackout” of April 28. After that incident, Red Eléctrica began to operate in “reinforced mode”activating (more expensive) gas plants constantly to stabilize the network tension. This emergency strategy has cost consumers an additional billion euros. Furthermore, given the inability of the grid to absorb all the energy generated at noon, the curtailment (clean energy that is wasted) has tripled, going from 1.8% to 7.2% in just a few months. The race for flexibility. The industry is no longer looking to install more panels, but rather to survive the ones it already has. According to the Financial Timesthe great hope is the batteries. Installing storage allows producers to “save” unprofitable projects by storing energy when the price is zero—or negative—during the day and selling it at night. Other solutions in progress: PPA Contracts: Companies like Zelestra sign long-term agreements with giants like Microsoft or Amazon to power data centers, although the prices requested by buyers are falling dangerously below the profitability threshold of €30/MWh. Export: Spain seeks to break its “energy isolation” with projects such as the submarine cable with Irelandscheduled for 2030, which will allow the solar surplus to be sent to northern Europe. Regulatory reforms: After the rejection of Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 in Congress, the Government is looking for alternative ways to encourage microgrids and grid forming (technology so that batteries stabilize the network as if they were traditional power plants). A structural “January Cost”. Despite technological advances, the citizen’s pocketbook faces a contradictory scenario. According to the latest resolution of the CNMCthe total remuneration that companies will receive for maintaining the transport and distribution networks will rise by 4.1%, reaching 6,608 million euros. However, the final impact is a puzzle of forecasts. The CNMC estimates that for homes (2.0 TD rate) tolls could drop by 1.3%, as long as their forecast that energy demand rises by 3.6% is met. but here conflict appears: while the Ministry for the Ecological Transition is very optimistic and proposes an increase in charges of 10.5% based on a consumption growth of 4.5%, the regulator (the CNMC) is more cautious. This imbalance of figures is dangerous. If demand does not grow as much as the Government expects, the system will not collect what is expected to cover the costs of renewables and networks. This would once again open the door to the feared tariff deficit, a historic debt that took Spain more than a decade to absorb. Furthermore, for those who sought refuge in self-consumption, the lesson of the April blackout was bitter: only the 33% of domestic installations In Spain they have batteries. Without that extra outlay, the solar panels automatically disconnect during a general outage due to safety regulations, leaving the user in the dark despite having the sun on their side. Europe’s energy laboratory. Spain has become the world showcase of the energy transition. It has shown that coal can be expelled from the system — taking place since July without generating it for the first time in 140 years—, but it has also shown that abundance without management is inefficient. How Ember’s analysis concludesthe challenge for 2026 is not to install more panels, but to modernize the network and focus on flexibility. As an executive cited by the Financial Times summarizes:the mistake was not putting up panels, but forgetting about the networks. The bill we pay at the end of the month is not going to improve by breaking production records, but by being able to take advantage of every ray of sunshine. Today, the future of our energy does not depend on it getting warmer, but on cables and batteries finally arriving on time. Image | Unsplash Xataka | 2026 has not yet started but it has already managed to produce the first bad news: the light goes up

AI data centers are skyrocketing your electricity bill

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data centers They consume a lot of electricityfrom there arise proposals as crazy as that of take them to space either submerge them in the sea to reduce its consumption. Technology companies face a problem of shortage of electrical energy, but the real problem is something else: data centers are causing the electricity bill to rise for all citizens. Now three US senators want to investigate it thoroughly. A political question. They say in the New York Times that three Democratic senators have announced that they are going to investigate big technology companies for their role in increasing the electricity bill. Senators have sent letters to Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, CoreWeave and other companies asking them to detail exactly what their data centers consume. The bill increases have become a political issue and have played an important role in elections in several states. In the case of Virginia, where the largest number of data centers in the world are concentrated, Governor Abigail Spanberger’s campaign included proposals to require data centers to “pay their fair share.” The problem. For the past 20 years, the US electricity system had been stuck with stable energy demand or very modest increases. Data centers have seen very abrupt growth. In 2023, data centers consumed 4% of all electricity in the United States and this is estimated to increase up to 12% 2028. This abrupt increase in demand has forced electricity companies to modernize the network. The technology companies assume part of the cost, but not all, and the way to recover that investment is through the bill of all network users. The discount trick. The technological ones, such as Amazon ensures that its data centers are not raising the bill and that they assume all the costs, contributing to improving the network for everyone. What they don’t say is that they benefit from enormous discounts, like the one they Amazon itself requested regulatory authorities in Ohio in 2024, where they are building a data center, a discount on the electricity rate. The problem is that the agreement is opaque and we do not know how much that discount was, but it is estimated that it could be 135 million per year, over a period of 10 years. Who really pays? In many cases, technology companies pay for the infrastructure necessary to expand the network, but what about these discounts? According to a paper published by the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative in which they reviewed more than 50 regulatory cases, it is very common for electricity companies to offer subsidies to attract technology companies and the way to compensate for these discounts is to pass them on to all network subscribers, which ends up increasing the bill. Unaffordable increases. According to the United States Energy Information Administrationin September electricity increased 7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Things change if we go to the cities near the data centers, where the increases have reached 267%, unaffordable figures for many citizens. Proposals. There are states that are already legislating to prevent network customers from ending up paying the bill for data centers. This is the case of Michigan, which has put special rules for data centers. Companies must sign a contract of at least 15 years, face fines if they cancel before and pay at least 80% of the contracted power even if they do not use it. In addition, they must pay all the costs of the lines and services that are built to serve them. However, these proposals could encounter difficulties due to the executive order that Trump signed and that prevents states from enacting laws that could stop the advance of AI, all to win the battle against China. Image | Google In Xataka | The United States may win the AI ​​race, but its problem is different: China is winning all the others

We thought only marijuana growers were stealing electricity. Now it turns out that supermarkets too

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While the city slows down and most businesses close, some supermarkets continue to operate normally. They open at dawn, keep the lights on and the cold rooms running. For years, this constant consumption barely attracted attention. Until last December 2, a joint action by the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Urban Police revealed that several supermarkets in Barcelona were obtaining electricity through illegal connections to the grid. Under the magnifying glass. It was not a specific case or a single neighborhood. The inspections were distributed across Nou Barris, Sant Andreu, Sant Martí, Gràcia, Eixample and Ciutat Vella. In total, 26 supermarkets, and in 24 of them the electricity did not go through the meter. The Civil Guard opened proceedings against 26 people, of Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationality, for an alleged crime of electricity fraud. They were not small isolated businesses. Most operated as franchise supermarkets, some open 24 hours a day and belonging to well-known chains, according to The Newspaper. The performance, named Nihariwas carried out with the collaboration of Endesa technicians and Labor and Social Security inspectors, and ended with the immediate cutting off of supply in the establishments, as reported by the Urban Guard. Electricity tapped into the network. The investigation began after a complaint filed by Endesa before the Civil Guard, as pointed out The Vanguard. The electricity company had detected a suspicious pattern: businesses that, due to their activity and schedules, recorded anomalous or non-existent consumption in their contracts. Once inside the premises, the technicians verified that the electricity was obtained through illegal connections directly to the general network or public lighting. Manipulations without any type of protection or technical review, designed to avoid paying the energy bill. The fraud amounts to 2.85 million kilowatts, a figure equivalent to the annual consumption of 814 homes. A crime with risk of fire. The Civil Guard remembers, as collected The Newspaperthat illegal connections lack safety systems, adequate insulation and protection against overloads, which significantly increases the possibility of short circuits and fires. The danger is aggravated by the location of many of these supermarkets: commercial basements of residential buildings, with a large influx of people and proximity to garages, storage rooms and common areas. In this sense, the Urban Guard emphasizes that electrical fraud It is not only a crime against the energy system, but also a citizen security problem. Much more than light. The operation uncovered a wide catalog of irregularities. During the inspections, the National Police identified 59 people. Of them, five have been considered victims of labor exploitation and another five are in an irregular administrative situation. In addition, the Barcelona Urban Guard drew up 87 minutes for administrative infractions related to safety, hygiene and regulatory compliance. Among them, blocked emergency exits, absence of fire extinguishers, impractical bathrooms, lack of mandatory signs, sale of expired or spoiled food, and carrying out the activity without a license. For its part, the Civil Guard opened 16 cases due to smuggling, incorrect labeling of products, unmarked surveillance cameras, sales receipts without the businessman’s data and manipulation of scales, with a weighing favorable to the merchant. The absence of a food handling card was also detected in some workers. The same fraud, another showcase. What was previously detected in boarded-up floors and linked industrial warehouses to illegal marijuana cultivation It now appears in all-night supermarkets. The investigation confirm that electrical fraud has ceased to be a strictly clandestine phenomenon and has become established, in some cases, in apparently normal activities facing the public. The scenario changes, but not the crime. And neither are the risks. Image | Release and freepik Xataka | Spain lights up for Christmas, but an uncomfortable doubt arises on some rooftops

There are more than 900 retailers trying to sell you home electricity. And now Spain has begun the great purge

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Spain has a world record that is difficult to justify; it is the country with the most registered electricity suppliers. For years, the official list exceeded 900 companiesalthough more than half never had real activity. A “ghost market” that generated confusion, operational risks and an opacity inappropriate for a strategic sector. Now, for the first time, the Government has decided to put things in order. In the last twelve months, the first disqualifications have begun to cascade and everything indicates that the registry will undergo a massive purge. A total screening. The latest report from the CNMC confirmed what the sector intuited for a long time. Of a census of more than 900 marketers, only 416 companies had clients and purchased energy effectively. The rest—hundreds of societies—remained in a kind of permanent pause, registered but without activity. And the law is clear about this. Both the Royal Decree 1955/2000 as Law 24/2013 They allow the Ministry to withdraw the authorization of any marketing company that spends a year without operating or that fails to comply with its economic and technical obligations. According to information that El Periódico has had access tothe Ministry for the Ecological Transition has disabled some 40 marketing companies in the last year, the majority without clients or without energy purchases for more than twelve months. Cleaning is based on systematic application of article 74a legal mechanism that had been underused for years. A process that has come into action. The process is already observed in the Official State Gazette itself, where It was published in October the disqualification of Virtual Power Plant & Smart Energy SL for not presenting the required guarantees to the market operator. The resolution also ordered the automatic transfer of its clients to a Reference Marketer, in accordance with Law 24/2013. Similar cases also appear in CNMC files, as INF/DE/368/23where it was documented that a marketing company accumulated non-payments, insufficient guarantees and zero energy acquired to supply its clients. It worked only on paper. What does this mean for the market and the consumer? Although it may seem like a technical matter, the purge directly affects citizens. According to Rate and Electricitythe elimination of ghost marketers implies: less risk of a company going bankrupt overnight, more control over small operators without real solvency, more security and continuity of supply, since the regulations require customers to be automatically transferred to a Reference Marketer if their supplier fails. And, finally, a less opaque market with a lower risk of fraud. This is a systemic problem: some of these small firms accumulated non-payments to Red Eléctrica (REE) and the Iberian Market Operator (OMIE), generating costs that ended up absorbing the entire electrical system. Others promised unviable prices and, unable to buy energy on the daily market, simply disappeared. But, is it so easy to open a marketing company? Spain is the only European country where a prior administrative license is not required to operate as an electricity marketer. Opening a company of this type is relatively simple: it is enough to present to MITECO a communication of start of activity accompanied by a responsible declaration of compliance with the requirements, according to the official file of the Ministry itself. Before, yes, the interested party must accredit before REE and OMIE its technical and economic capacity: present financial guarantees, demonstrate that you will be able to buy energy on the market and have computer systems to communicate daily with the system operator. According to the consulting firm Audynforsystemthis accreditation is the true operational filter, but it has not prevented the proliferation of small local or merely registered marketers. How does debugging continue? The objective is not to reduce the number of marketing companies per se, but to eliminate: those that have never operated, those that do not meet guarantees, those that default on payments or generate risks to the system. According to Expansion416 marketing companies are still active, 335 have already been deregistered in recent years and 137 are under investigation for inactivity. The CNMC and MITECO will continue to apply article 74 of RD 1955/2000 to automatically disqualify those who have not been active for a year. Furthermore, recent resolutions show that who breaches guarantees or non-payments will be disqualified, with mandatory transfer of clients. THE message is unequivocal, there will be fewer marketers, but more reliable ones. It starts to get organized. For years, no one hit the brakes. Now, with defaults, regulatory tensions and an electrical system hit by unprecedented volatilities, the Government has decided to put things in order. The paradox is evident, while Europe tries to attract more competition, Spain has had to do just the opposite: reduce a hypertrophied market that never reflected real activity. Ongoing purging is not just administrative cleanup. It is an attempt to rebuild trust in a sector that needs stability to face the country’s great energy challenges: electrification, storage, digital networks and renewable transition. Image | freepik Xataka | 2026 has not yet started but it has already managed to produce the first bad news: the light goes up

Germany is trying to stop its electricity dependence on China. The question is whether that is even possible.

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Almost four years ago, Germany learned a painful lesson: your industry cannot depend on the energy of a geopolitical rival. The Russian gas crisis after the invasion of Ukraine forced the Germans to make more than one sacrifice while the country’s energy model was transformed. Now, at the gates of 2026, Friedrich Merz’s government faces a déjà vu disturbing. The same stone twice. Germany may have become independent of Gazprom’s gas pipelines, but its solar panels and grid technology bear, directly or indirectly, China’s stamp. Good: Berlin has just hit the brakes. The collapse of a seemingly innocuous financial operation last week has revealed that Germany is carefully reviewing every watt that enters its system to avoid repeating the historic Russian gas mistake. The trigger. The Italian company Snam SpA intended to acquire a minority stake in Open Grid Europe (OGE), one of the largest gas network operators in Germany. On paper, it was an investment between European partners. In practice, the German Economy Ministry saw the shadow of Beijing. The problem was not Snam, but its shareholders. The state-owned State Grid Corporation of China owns 35% of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, which in turn owns a third of Snam. For the Merz government, that was risk enough. Given Berlin’s refusal to accept the proposed solutions, Snam withdrew its offer last week. A clear message. Berlin does not want companies with Chinese state participation to have access to the country’s energy arteries, even indirectly, which marks a change in doctrine compared to the era of Olaf Scholz, who at the time allowed the Chinese shipping company Cosco to enter the port of Hamburg. The current executive is much more defensive: national security takes precedence over capital. The question is… Too late? If blocking the purchase of a gas network is relatively simple, unraveling technological dependence on China is a logistical and economic nightmare. 95% of the photovoltaic cells installed in Germany come from Chinese manufacturers. And almost the entire wind industry, especially offshore, depends on rare earths controlled by China. The German energy transition is based on Asian hardware. Germany needs Chinese technology to meet its climate goals. And he doesn’t hide it. The German government has already raised this concern in international forums, denouncing the Chinese overcapacity in sectors such as electric mobility and solar energy. Technology that is needed but now considered a “systemic risk.” Is decoupling possible? In 2018, the German government already had to intervene so that the state bank KfW bought a stake in the network operator 50Hertz, preventing it from falling into the hands, again, of the Chinese State Grid. Seven years later, the strategy of “patching” individual acquisitions seems insufficient in the face of structural dependence. If the experience with Russia is any guide, Berlin seems to have decided that, this time, the price of security must be paid in advance, before anyone decides to turn off the tap. But today, the reality of the market is stubborn: replacing Chinese hardware means, almost invariably, paying more and taking longer to deploy renewables. Image | rawpixel In Xataka | If you were expecting cheap electricity this winter, we have bad news: Holland

A Chinese laboratory has managed to generate electricity directly from rain, without occupying land or using metal

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Until now, the electricity from a storm came only from lightning. A Chinese team has just added another protagonist: a device that converts raindrops into usable energy. The invention comes from the Frontier Science Institute of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and will open a new avenue for renewable energies. Its technical name is Water-integrated Droplet Electricity Generator, or simply W-DEG. The discovery. What differentiates this generator from the rest is not its power, but its logic. According to the published article in National Science Reviewthe device floats on water and uses that same water as part of the electrical circuit. It requires no metals or heavy structures, and yet each drop of rain can release spikes of up to 250 volts. Light, cheap and efficient: a small hydrovoltaic revolution. Rain as a source of clean energy. The physical principle behind W-DEG combines two known phenomena: contact electrification and electrostatic induction. When a droplet impacts a floating dielectric film, electrical charges are instantly redistributed between the surface of the material and the water, generating an electrical pulse. Water acts at the same time as a lower electrode and structural support, thanks to its high surface tension and incompressibility: it is firm enough to withstand the impact of drops, but fluid enough to stabilize the system. To prevent pooled water from blocking new discharges, the researchers added micro-drainage holes that allow liquid to flow downward, but not upward. This design keeps the surface clean even during heavy rain and prevents loss of efficiency. A small prototype. The Nanjing team built a 0.3 square meter prototype. Floating on water, the device was able to illuminate 50 LED diodes simultaneously and charge capacitors in a matter of minutes. Its modular design allows it to be easily expanded to power environmental sensors, water quality monitoring systems or small electrical equipment in rainy areas. Furthermore, the W-DEG is a “soilless” system: it does not occupy agricultural or urban land and can be installed on bodies of water without heavy infrastructure. This makes it an ideal candidate for regions where rain is abundant and space is scarce, or where other renewable sources – such as solar or wind – are less constant. The rise of floating energies. The new Chinese generator arrives at a time when floating energy is experiencing a global boom. Floating solar panels are being installed on ponds and reservoirs around the world, from India until the swiss alpsto produce electricity and reduce water evaporation. However, a study from Cornell University revealed an unexpected effect: in small ponds, these installations can increase methane and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 27%, by altering the balance of aquatic ecosystems. Faced with this challenge, the W-DEG emerges as a more environmentally friendly alternative. By not covering the entire surface of the water or blocking sunlight, it allows energy to be generated without altering aquatic life or natural gas exchange. Will storms generate light? The technology is still in the experimental phase. The NUAA team itself recognizes that it will have to optimize the device’s response to droplets of different sizes and speeds, something essential for real conditions. But the potential is undeniable: a lightweight, economical and durable generator, capable of obtaining energy directly from the natural water cycle, without occupying land or generating waste. Researchers imagine swarms of these devices floating in lakes or reservoirs, charging environmental sensors or powering local microgrids during rain. If every storm could turn on a light or power a system, gray days would no longer be synonymous with a blackout. With inventions like this, the border between water and energy blurs, and nature begins—literally—to generate its own electricity. Image | Unsplash Xataka | China has launched its first floating solar park in the sea: panels that rise and fall with the tide

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