energy

The rain in Seville is wonderful and now it is also converted into energy with the new CSIC solar panels

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If there is a renewable energy that has emerged in recent years, it is solar, as can be seen in this graph of the International Energy Agency. However, solar energy still has its limitations: it requires space (hence there are projects in lakes and in the open sea) and of course, it depends on whether there is sun. Yes, putting batteries can cushion that irregular supply (here Spain is a powerhouse), but a research team from the University of Seville with the CSIC has given a twist to classic photovoltaic panels and now can generate electricity with rain. Context. Solar panels lose effectiveness when full sun does not fall on them, either because there are clouds or it rains. Therefore, the ideal scenario is midday on a sunny day, but spoiler: this happens less times than you need to plug something in. Not to mention devices that need continuous and autonomous energy supply, no matter what happens in the electrical grid. The battery option allows us to satisfy the supply on demand and although now They are at their minimum pricestill involves purchasing another component, considering its useful life and its management as waste. The invention. As explains the CSIChave developed a hybrid device that allows capturing energy from both the sun and rain, and also doing so at the same time. As? With a sheet thinner than a human hair (100 nanometers) superimposed on the solar cells. It works on two fronts at the same time: on the one hand as a protective encapsulant for perovskite solar cells, improving their durability in adverse conditions. On the other hand, as a triboelectric nanogenerator: it converts the impact of raindrops into electricity due to friction. Thus, it is capable of producing up to 110 volts, enough to light LEDs or power sensors. Why is it important. Because if this technology is commercialized, it will open the doors for completely autonomous electronic devices to function without batteries or plugs. This is the case of the implementation of IoT outdoors or in remote areas without access to the electrical grid. It serves as an example of use in applications in rural infrastructure or agriculture, such as environmental sensors, weather stations, urban signage or auxiliary lighting. The innovation is not only generating energy from rain, but integrating it all into a single thin layer that solves the main Achilles heel of perovskite: its environmental degradation. In fact, science had already proven with taurine from octopuses. How have they done it. To carry out this device, they used plasma technology to deposit plasma technology in a similar way to that implemented in mobile screens. For the base, perovskite cells, a material with better efficiency and lower cost than traditional silicon, but fragile under conditions such as humidity. The use of triboelectric materials is not new: a research team from the University of Hong Kong a few years ago something similar occurred to him: the generation of electricity by the simple friction of droplets upon impact, such as static electricity generated by rubbing a balloon. Yes, but. Although technically speaking they have generated electricity, the reality is that it is high voltage but low intensity, which in practice is not even useful for charging a mobile phone. And although the perovskite is reinforced with this sheet, in the long term it is still less durable than silicon, so it still has pending issues. Likewise, there remains the great challenge of leaving the laboratory and validating these experiments in real environments. If production can be scaled to an industrial level, another challenge would arise: keeping costs low. In Xataka | Europe produces more clean electricity than fossil electricity for the first time. The hard part starts now In Xataka | Solar panels have an invisible and very brief moment in which they do not work. And solving it is key to your future Cover | Lara John

energy and data centers

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When talking about Iran’s weapons, missiles are often mentioned. However, a fundamental leg of the country’s war machine is that of kamikaze drones. He Shahed-136 introduced in 2020, known as “loitering ammunition“, has been Iran’s strategic spearhead in the Middle East for years. Also a weapon that Russia has used in the Ukrainian war. After the beginning of the war against the United States and IsraelIran has directed these drones against its enemies. Not against bases, but against the two pillars that can do the most damage to the West. Energy and data centers. The drones. Since the Ukrainian war began, drones have proven to be the most fearsome weapon. There are more homemade ones, there are more sophisticated ones, but they all have something in common: power to destroythey can be operated at a good distance, they are very cheap, it is difficult to intercept them and the most advanced ones can be launched in swarms without risks for the operators. But Shahed’s drones are not like a street DJI with explosives: they are drones with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers that are ideal for attacking very effectively. The key is in the price: they are thrown a lot and, even if many are intercepted, the cost of that interception is extremely favorable for the attacker. It is estimated that a drone costs about $20,000 while a interceptor missile The average is between 300,000 and 400,000 dollars. That relationship is making even the US is using them. Ras Tanura. And it is these drones, and their variants, that Iran is using to attack critical infrastructure. Because they don’t have to hit the targets directly: they just need to land nearby or with the simple threat that they can reach that key infrastructure. We have an example in Ras Tanura. It is one of the largest oil refineries in the world that had to close its doors last Monday. Aramco (the owner) made the decision after debris from intercepted drones fell near the facilities in Saudi Arabia. This caused a crisis in the crude oil market, with the barrel rising in price meteorically and with a lot of Overcrowded cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Data centers. But if power is critical, in the age of AI, data centers have also become a vital infrastructure. That is why these facilities are also in the crosshairs of an Iran that attackeddirectly, two installations of Amazon Web Services, or AWS, on March 1 and 2. AWS presence These are two data centers in the United Arab Emirates, while another Amazon facility in Bahrain also suffered some damage from a third attack. And specifically, computing on EC2 and cloud storage on both S3 and DynamoDB began to experience high error rates. Amazon itself confirmed that “these attacks have caused structural damage, disrupted power to our infrastructure, and, in some cases, required fire suppression activities.” They point out that the water damaged part of the equipment and, as a consequence, their clients should migrate their workload to servers in other parts of the world because the recovery “will be prolonged.” Market with anxiety. This has impacted the market, of course. If in the energy and crude oil segment it is evident that stopping a plant that ‘produces’ 550,000 barrels a day and cutting off a transit area through which passes 20% of the world’s oil has its consequences, which data centers becoming a target has also shaken the market. Major companies related to AI, semiconductors and storage suffered the consequences this past Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. NVIDIA, Micron, Western Digital, ASML, Applied Materials, SK Hynix and Samsung traded lower on the worst day in recent months. It is not known if components can continue to be transported at the high rate we had if two of the busiest container shipping corridors of the planet suffer an alteration in traffic. But don’t worry, they are already recovering so that the AI wheel keep turning in any way. Images | Goal, Tasnim News Agency In Xataka | Ukraine has shown that wars are no longer won with tanks. They are earned with something that Spain has in its hands: PAMOV

Delaying the closure of a single plant forces us to redesign the entire energy map of Spain

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Right in the middle of a relentless political and business battle to extend the life of the Spanish atomic park, the harsh reality of the market has imposed itself. While top executives discuss the long-term future, the present has hit the table: the owner of the Almaraz II nuclear power plant notified the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) of an unscheduled shutdown of its reactor and its decoupling from the electrical grid. The alarms did not go off due to a security problem. In fact, the incident was classified as level 0 (no significance for security) on the international INES scale, to which we have had access. The real reason was purely economic and motivated by causes related to the electricity market. As explained The Extremadura Newspaper, The recent succession of storms triggered renewable production —sinking electricity prices— which, added to an “unaffordable tax burden” that represents more than 75% of its variable costs, made it completely unfeasible to keep the reactor on. The recent pulse: from disconnection to extension This disconnection collides head-on with the intense corporate movements of recent weeks. At the end of October, Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy presented to the Executive a formal request to postpone until June 2030 the closure of Almaraz, whose two reactors were scheduled to be disconnected for 2027 and 2028. But the ambition of the sector does not stop in Cáceres. According to Five Daysthe president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has confirmed that they will request the expansion of other plants in the future, ensuring that “most of them can reach 60 and even 80 years.” This position is supported by technical and logistical arguments from the industry. As detailed in The Economistthe CEO of Endesa, José Bogas, aspires to prolong “in round numbers about 10 more years” the entire Spanish nuclear park. Bogas argues that it does not make logistical sense to proceed with the complex dismantling of two groups of the same plant on different dates (2027 and 2028). Meanwhile, the CSN is already analyzing the documentation to issue its mandatory report, foreseeably in summer, as reported in a press release from the regulator itself. The possible extension of Almaraz has opened a huge gap between two irreconcilable visions of the energy transition. In the block of those who defend extending atomic life, economic and labor arguments set the pace. According to the statements of Ignacio Sánchez Galán collected by Vozpópulinuclear power plants are a key element in reducing the price of electricity. In fact, the president of Iberdrola recalls that European countries that lack this type of energy, such as Italy and Germany, pay “about 20 euros more” per megawatt hour for electricity compared to Spain and France. Added to this defense of competitiveness is the warning about the direct impact on the final consumer’s pocket. A recent report from the OBS Business School alert that if Almaraz closesthe inevitable dependence on gas would increase the electricity bill by around 23% for households – between 150 and 250 euros more per year – and up to 35% for industry. Beyond the receipt, there is the territorial factor. The College of Industrial Engineers, in statements to The Energy Newspaperremember that this plant not only generates 7% of the electricity in all of Spain, complying with the highest international safety standards (WANO 1), but is also a vital economic engine to sustain 4,000 direct and indirect jobs that stop depopulation in the region. However, against this position stands a solid wall of detractors who see the extension as an imminent danger for the green transition. A joint investigation by the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), prepared on behalf of Greenpeaceconcludes that extending Almaraz for just three years would mean “momentary relief, structural damage.” Researchers calculate that this decision would cost consumers a cumulative extra cost of 3,831 million euros between now and 2033 and would stop up to 26,129 million euros in investments destined for new clean energies. From Greenpeace they also point to the so-called “plug effect”: since nuclear is an inflexible technology that produces fixed gear regardless of demand, it often forces us to disconnect or waste renewable energy—free and clean—in times of high sun or wind. This situation generates a climate of enormous concern in the green sector. In an interview with InfoLibrePedro Fresco, general director of the Valencian renewable employer association Avaesen, warns that granting a “mini-extension” of three years would be the worst possible scenario. In his opinion, this movement would send a message of total uncertainty to investors, threatening to stop the development of future renewable projects in its tracks. The “Domino Effect”: rewriting the energy map The true background of this battle is that Almaraz is not an isolated piece. As several experts warn he Vigo Lighthouse and andl Newspaper of Extremaduradelaying the closure of the Cáceres plant would unleash an unstoppable “domino effect” throughout the national territory. If Almaraz is delayed to 2030, its closure would coincide in time with that of Ascó I (Tarragona) and Cofrentes (Valencia). The electricity companies assume that the Government would also have to postpone these closures to avoid overlapping the gigantic and complex work of dismantling four reactors simultaneously. This would also force the closures of Ascó II, Vandellós II and Trillo to be pushed well beyond 2035, blowing up the current National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). The final decision is in the hands of the Executive, which for the moment maintains its position. The Government has marked three non-negotiable red lines to accept any change: that it guarantees radiological safety, security of supply and, above all, that it does not cost consumers an extra euro or imply tax reductions for electricity companies. And this is where the circle closes. As Galán insists on Vozpópulithe plants bear an enormous tax burden of “30-35 euros per megawatt hour.” Without a tax reduction, electricity companies threaten economic viability; but without profitability, it is the market itself that, as … Read more

the great paradox of Spanish energy

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The Spanish energy market has broken into two halves that seem to have no relationship with each other. On the one hand, the trench of the retail market—direct sales to consumers—has become a scenario of continuous attrition where historical giants are bleeding customers at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, the boardrooms of these same corporations celebrate the highest profits in their entire history. How is it possible to make more money than ever by losing hundreds of thousands of customers? The answer defines the new paradigm of the sector: large electricity companies are ceasing to be “light sellers” to consolidate themselves as managers of colossal infrastructures. The real business is no longer in fighting the average citizen’s monthly bill, but in controlling the cables, regulated assets and energy demanded by the new technological giants. The bleeding of the 1.3 million contracts. The closing figures for 2025 draw a historic leak. As detailed The IndependentIberdrola and Endesa suffered an “unprecedented fall”, jointly losing almost 1.3 million customers (1,279 million exactly) in the electricity and gas markets. Endesa left 645,000 contracts behind, while Iberdrola lost 634,000. The attitude of companies towards this flight of users is radically different. The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, downplayed to the matter during the presentation of results, calling it “normal rotation” and boasting of the “enormous loyalty” of its hard core of users. On the other side of the coin, Endesa yes it has set off the alarms: has announced an injection of 900 million euros until 2028 with the urgent objective of recovering half a million customers, even relying on strategic alliances such as the recent purchase of Masorange’s energy business. The feast of alternative firms. In the last year, an absolute mobility record was broken, more than 7.25 million changes of marketer. In other words, almost one in four Spaniards decided to change their rate. The big winners of this stampede have been companies like Octopus Energy, the MásMóvil group and, most especially, Repsol. The oil company has already established itself as the fourth electricity operator in the country, exceeding 2.1 million customers and taking market share directly from traditional electricity companies. The model breaks, but the box is full. Any traditional economics textbook would say that losing more than a million customers is a financial catastrophe. However, the balance sheets say the opposite. How to publish Five DaysIberdrola pulverized its brands by earning 6,285 million euros in 2025 (12% more than the previous year), while Endesa reached 2,351 million (18% more). The secret of this paradox explains it perfectly The Mail When analyzing Iberdrola’s accounts: the net benefits that come from the management of distribution networks skyrocketed by a brutal 77%, while the contribution of the energy generation business fell by 27%. In simple words, they earn less by selling electricity to the end customer, but they earn much more by charging the regulated “toll” for using their cables, especially in markets with very attractive legislation such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which already account for 60% of their investments. The future runs through the cables. Electricity companies are going to stop obsessing about installing solar panels at any price to focus on the sockets and transmission highways. Endesa will invest a record figure of 10.6 billion until 2028, allocating more than half (52%) exclusively to electricity networks. Simultaneously, it will put the brakes on renewable energy, cutting its investment by 20% due to the “cannibalization” (plunging prices) that solar energy suffers during peak production hours. Iberdrola follows the same path: 62% of its gigantic investments last year went to the networks. The other great vector: data centers. Endesa already has some 3,000 MW of capacity ready to feed these insatiable technological infrastructures, highlighting its hybrid macroproject in Pego (Portugal). All of this will require a much more robust national backbone; Therefore, Redeia (parent company of Red Eléctrica) will skyrocket your investments 70%, injecting 6,000 million into the high-voltage transmission network to support this technological boom and the electrification of the country. Furthermore, this scenario comes with strong pressure of both companies for extending the useful life of Spanish nuclear plants, such as Almaraz, defending that they can operate safely up to 80 years to guarantee cheap and stable base energy that the system urgently needs. Network saturation and market clearing. The regulatory context explains many of these operational decisions. Spain faces a monumental bureaucratic funnel: 83.4% of electricity distribution nodes They are administratively saturatedwhich keeps 130 GW of renewable energy locked in, even though the grid is physically underutilized. To avoid the collapse of reindustrialization, the CNMC is designing new “flexible access permits” that will change the rules of the game. At the same time, the bottom of the market pyramid is undergoing a silent purge. The Government started a few months ago a historic cleanup of the “ghost marketers.” Of the more than 900 firms registered in Spain, only 416 had real activity. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has already begun to disable inactive or delinquent companies, transferring their clients to avoid systemic risks and clean up a hypertrophied market. The definitive metamorphosis. The traditional electricity bill is no longer the main battlefield for the great energy totems. While they gladly cede – or out of pure wear and tear – the exhausting hand-to-hand combat of the retail market to independent marketers and oil companies in the midst of a green conversion, Iberdrola and Endesa have ascended to a much safer, more profitable and macroscopic ecosystem. They have understood that the future does not belong to whoever sells electricity to the final consumer, but to whoever owns the highways on which, inevitably, all that energy will have to circulate. Image | freepik and Alex Quezada Xataka | Spain has a giant problem: its electrical network claims to be “full” when in reality it is underused

This is the plan to keep our energy cheaper

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Fifty megawatts. That is all the power in batteries that Spain managed to connect to its electrical network in the last three full years from 2023 to 2025. However, in an unprecedented twist of the script, only in the 31 days of January 2026 did the sector has plugged in more than 57 megawatts. It’s not an anecdote, it’s the starting signal. After years of administrative paralysis and debates about how to manage the flood of green energy, the energy storage sector in Spain has begun to wake up. With the aim of reaching 22.5 GW of storage capacity in 2030 marked by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), the country faces what is probably the largest structural transformation of its electrical system in decades. Nature’s warning. The Spanish electrical system has just gone through a monumental stress test. As we have been documenting in Xataka during the last weeksthe concatenation of Atlantic storms and historic wind production pushed water reserves to record levels and sank the wholesale price for dozens of hours, even into negative territory. The oversupply was such that nuclear plants like Trillo They stopped operating when they were not married in the market. Beyond the meteorological anecdote, the episode exposed a structural failure: Spain has the capacity to generate enormous quantities of clean and cheap electricity, but it lacks enough “electronic reservoirs” to move that energy over time. The result is renewable waste, zero prices and a system forced to absorb surpluses at any cost. The transition no longer depends only on installing more green megawatts. It depends on knowing how to manage them. The numbers reveal the magnitude of the moment. At the end of January, Spain had less than 100 MW of operational batteries, but more than 11,600 MW with access permission granted and almost 14,000 MW in processing, according to the latest APPA Renovables report. More than 25,000 MW on the exit ramp. The technology and investors are ready. The only obstacle left to overcome is a regulatory framework that seems stuck in the past. The clash against the 20th century. The barrier is not technical, but bureaucratic. José Carlos Díaz Lacaci, CEO of SotySolar, explains it clearly in statements to Xataka: “The problem is not technical/technological, it is that a regulation from the 20th century continues to be applied that understands the battery as a final consumer, when in reality it is an asset of system flexibility.” Currently, the regulations treat the charging of a giant battery as if it were the consumption of a factory. “Or what is the same: we are applying rules of a one-way highway when what is needed is bidirectionality on that road and regulation by traffic lights,” illustrates the SotySolar spokesperson. The frustration in the sector is palpable. A battery does not “consume” electricity in the classic sense: it moves it over time to return it when the system needs it. However, you are required to have firm demand access as if you were an end user. As long as there is no specific regulatory figure for storage – with its own framework of tolls, access and remuneration – the deployment will continue to advance, but without the industrial scale required by the PNIEC. The paradox is that the market already behaves as if that figure existed. Operational data shows that the batteries charge during hours of solar surplus and discharge during peak demand naturally. “The regulator knows perfectly well what the graphs say,” says Díaz Lacaci. “It is not a question of whether it works, but of giving it legal certainty.” Two ways to a big stack. To absorb this renewable avalanche, Spain has to activate its two large storage lungs. On the one hand, large-scale batteries (BESS) offer a response in milliseconds and allow the grid to be stabilized with a precision that no other technology matches. And the queue of projects is historic. According to APPA dataIn addition to the more than 25,000 MW in permits and processing, there are 92,620 MW of demand access requests in the transmission network, much of them linked to storage facilities. It is an unmistakable sign of investment appetite. The international context reinforces the thesis. Spain It is the second country in the world in battery storage projects for the electrical grid, only behind the United States, with 16,000 MW planned until 2030 and an estimated volume of 2,000 million euros in development. However, the current business model remains fragile. Without a capacity market that rewards the constant availability of these assets – and not just energy sold punctually – the viability of large-scale financing is complicated, leaving many of these projects waiting for a clear framework. The muscle of hydraulic pumping. On the other hand, the other lung is hydraulic pumping. Reversible reservoirs act as the country’s heavy battery, Spain has around 6 GW of installed capacity and the PNIEC plans to reach around 10 GW of seasonal storage in 2030. In times of overproduction and plunging prices, these plants use cheap electricity to lift water to a higher reservoir and store it as potential energy. In January 2026 alone, pumping consumption exceeded 771,400 MWh in the national system, according to data from Red Eléctrica. However, its expansion is not guaranteed either. As Antonio Hernández, partner at EY, explains, in statements collected by Expansionachieving the objectives will require approving capacity markets adapted to pumping, reducing the tax burden and establishing hydraulic concessions with sufficient horizons to recover the investment. The risk of capital flight. Time plays against us. Today, the business model for batteries in Spain is complex. They live on “highly specialized niches” in adjustment services, a scheme that is “profitable as artisanal projects”, but which is “unsustainable for the industrialization of storage”, warns the CEO of SotySolar. This regulatory limbo has a real cost. “Regulatory uncertainty always penalizes, and capital, indeed, is very sensitive to that factor,” warns Díaz Lacaci. The industry is aware that international funds are already freezing projects … Read more

AI consumes obscene amounts of energy. Sam Altman compares it to the cost of “training” humans

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participated in an event organized by The Indian Express. During the interview made some striking statements, but the greatest of all of them was the one he dedicated to talking about what it costs to train an AI model. In fact, he complained about how many of ChatGPT’s energy consumption discussions they are unfair. Training humans also consumes a lot. The interviewer asked Altman about ChatGPT’s energy consumption and Sam Altman took a few seconds to answer the question, and then made a peculiar comparison (my bold): One of the things that is always unfair in this comparison is that it talks about how much energy it takes to train an AI model compared to what it costs a human to perform an inference query. But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become intelligent. And not only that, it took the widespread evolution of the hundred billion people who have lived and learned not to be eaten by predators and to understand science and so on to create you. The fair comparison is if you ask ChatGPT, how much energy does it take once their model is trained to answer that question compared to a human? And AI has probably already caught up in terms of energy efficiency if we measure it that way. A previous Epoch AI study corroborates that energy consumption during inference (when we actually use ChatGPT, for example) is low. Source: Epoch AI. Training is one thing, inference another.. The answer may be controversial, but to a certain extent it is logical: learning, both in the case of humans and AI, takes time and consumes many resources, but that cost is one thing and the cost of inference, of “applying that training”, is another. Once we have learned, it is not too difficult to answer things. This is what Altman is trying to point out here, who recognizes that AI does indeed consume a lot of energy in training, but that it has then become very efficient in the inference phase, when we actually use ChatGPT. The problem is that although Altman has already spoken that in inference consumption is minimal, does not provide evidence of this. The water problem is no longer a problem. He also spoke about the controversial water consumption that was theoretically carried out in large AI data centers. Although he acknowledged that this was a problem when “we used to use evaporative cooling in data centers.” Now, however, “we don’t do that,” he recalled, and made it clear that those accusations that “ChatGPT uses 17 gallons per query, or whatever” is totally false, “totally crazy, it has no connection with reality.” But again, there is still no official data from AI companies in this section. How much does AI really consume? The truth is that at this point we still do not have really clear data on how much the AI ​​consumes both in the training phase and in the inference phase. There are those who have investigated energy and water consumption and have made a mistake. wildly exaggerating the databut for example in the US, where a large number of data centers are concentrated, there is no legislation that forces transparency with those figures. Increasingly more efficient models and data centers. One of the most interesting studies was the one made by Epoch AI in February 2025, and at that time it was also concluded that AI did not actually consume as much as it was said to consume. In fact, it consumed relatively little and the models have only improved in efficiency. Chips and cooling systems have also improved, and although data centers have certainly require enormous amounts of energywe continue blindly in this section. In Xataka | Spain has a plan to capture more data centers than anyone else: “shield” them from energy costs

Aragón produces so much energy that it no longer knows what to do with it. And that’s great news for data centers

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Aragon has always served as a great battery for the rest of the country, sending gigawatts to the industrial centers of Catalonia or the Basque Country, but now the script has changed. The community now has a “problem” that many would envy: it produces so much energy that it has attracted those who need it most. As if it were a magnet, the technological giants have landed in the Ebro valley to convert the region in what The Country already calls “Spanish Virginia”, in reference to the North American state with the highest concentration of data centers in the world. The x-ray of a bittersweet record. To understand the magnitude of the change, you have to look at the counter. According to the data collected by The Aragon Newspaperthe community once again broke its historical record for electricity production in 2025, reaching 22,365 gigawatt hours (GWh), 2.1% more than the previous year. However, this milestone hides an important small print: the record was not achieved thanks to the wind or the sun, since these fell by 4.8% due to the drought (which sank the hydraulics by 19.1%) and a less windy year. Here comes the bittersweet part, to compensate for the green decline and cover the gap left after the great blackout in April, the gas combined cycles increased their activity by 112.2%. But the data that really confirms the change of era is not how much is produced, but how much is spent. While electricity demand in Spain grew by a modest 2.7%, in Aragon internal consumption shot up by 7.1%, a figure that the provincial media describes as “true structural change” and that it attributes directly to the takeoff of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) complexes in Villanueva de Gállego, El Burgo and Huesca. The rain of millions (and megawatts) This energetic appetite is no coincidence; It is the fuel for an unprecedented investment. As we have explained in Xatakathe autonomous government has given the green light to the expansion of AWS, which contemplates an investment of 15.7 billion euros in a ten-year plan. It is not about building isolated ships, but about creating an “AWS Region” (Europe Spain), a system of eight campuses interconnected by fiber optics that function as a single operational unit protected against failures. But it’s not all servers and algorithms in the cloud. From the Herald have detailed that Amazon will not only save data, but will also build a server recycling factory in Aragon. With an additional investment of 200 million euros, this circular economy plant promises to create up to 1,100 direct jobs, a balloon of labor oxygen that goes beyond highly qualified technical profiles. Jam in the network and flight to Teruel. The Aragonese paradox is that, although there is plenty of energy, there are no “roads” to transport it. The electrical distribution network in the community is at its limit, with an occupancy of 94.3%well above the national average. There is electricity, but there are no free outlets for so much industry. This saturation in the Zaragoza logistics hub has caused an unexpected movement towards “emptied Spain.” As my colleague in XatakaGiven the impossibility of connecting in the capital, AWS has decided to take one of its new centers to La Puebla de Híjar, a town in Teruel with barely 900 inhabitants. The choice is strategic: the N-232 highway acts as the backbone and, there, the electrical grid has the capacity (100 MW guaranteed) to feed the beast. Side B: water and territory. Every revolution has a cost, and in this case it is measured in natural resources. Digital euphoria collides with the physical reality of a dry land. The alarms went off, as reported The Countrywhen Amazon requested to expand its water concession by 48% to cool its servers. The conflict is palpable on the ground, the Gaén irrigation community in Teruel keeps negotiations blockedrefusing to give up water from the Ebro if that compromises the agricultural future of the area. The most critical view brings it Ecologists in Action. Its renewable viewer warns that the deployment is not harmless: there are more than 12,000 hectares of authorized solar plants and thousands of wind turbines in the pipeline. The organization warns that, if all the data center projects in the portfolio are approved, their electrical consumption could reach five times the current demand of the entire community, turning the Aragonese landscape into a continuous industrial estate and drying up its water resources. The new balance. Aragón closed the year 2025 at a fascinating crossroads. How to conclude The Aragon Newspaperthe community continues to be surplus, but less and less. Electricity exports have fallen from 56% to 52% in just one year. The region has achieved what seemed impossible: from being a mere service station to becoming the engine of the digital economy. But the question that remains in the air, between million-dollar investment figures and environmental warnings, is whether the electricity grid and water resources will withstand the weight of being Europe’s hard drive. Image | freepik Xataka | Aragón is not afraid of AI: it has just approved three more new mega data centers in full commitment to renewables

There is so much energy left over that we are using the reservoirs like giant batteries

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Not long ago, the news in Spain was the dust, the dry land and the anguish of starving reservoirs. Today, the story has taken a turn as violent as it was unexpected. The background sound in the Spanish electrical system is no longer the drought alarm, but the roar of the floodgates opening to release excess water. What the meteorology has given in the form of torrential rains during this beginning of 2026 has become a financial paradox: there is so much energy left over that the market, designed to manage scarcity, has begun to show its seams in the face of abundance. The price of electricity has not only dropped; has been broken. A perfect storm. And this time, literally. A succession of Atlantic storms (Goretti, Harry, Ingrid…) and an extraordinarily rainy start to the year They have brought the hydraulic reserve to 77.3%. This scenario has forced hydroelectric plants to work on a piece-rate basis. It is not an option: many are “flow-through” plants, which means they cannot store water and must turbine it to avoid overflows, flooding the electrical grid with cheap energy. This situation has drawn two opposite realities. On the one hand, for households with a regulated (PVPC) or indexed rate, the saying “year of snow, year of goods” is literally fulfilled. The bill plummets thanks to the massive entry of renewables. On the other hand, nuclear energy, designed to operate 24/7 as a base load, has become the collateral victim. The technical data of Red Eléctrica corroborate this trend. In the generation records of February 12, it is observed how nuclear energy remains on a flat line of about 5,770 MW, but operating in an environment where wind energy exceeds 17,000 MW at peak hours, pushing prices down and displacing other technologies. The mechanics of a “broken” market. The excess of water and wind has caused the price of electricity to “break” during the hours of lowest consumption. We’re no longer just talking about the solar “duck curve” at noon; now zero or negative prices also appear at dawn. According to The Spanishin the first ten days of February, 69 hours were accumulated with zero or negative prices. The system is so saturated with energy that it needs “sponges” to absorb it. Here pumping hydroelectricity comes into play (using electricity to raise water from a lower reservoir to a higher one), which acts as the system’s large battery. REE reports They are revealing about it.. During the early hours of February 12, the system recorded massive pumping consumption to prevent the collapse of the network, reaching consumption values ​​(energy withdrawn from the network) greater than 1,800 MW: At 04:05 on February 12, pumping consumption was -1,850 MW. At 04:55 hours, it remained at -1,848 MW. This confirms that Spain is using its reversible reservoirs to “drink” the excess electricity produced by wind and flowing water while demand sleeps. An x-ray of the price. As a result, the wholesale price has plummeted. According to Expansionthe average price for this February 13 is €4.38/MWh in the wholesale market (pool), a ridiculous figure compared to previous years. However, the market presents a time “trap” for the consumer. Although the average is low, the volatility is extreme. OMIE graphs show a flat curve close to zero for almost the entire day, which shoots up vertically at dusk. The valley: On February 12, the price remained practically flat and low for most of the day. The peak (The forbidden hour): When the sun goes down and the photovoltaics stop providing, and coinciding with dinner, the price skyrockets. Between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. the most expensive section is concentratedexceeding €35/MWh in the wholesale market, which translates into more than €170/MWh for the final consumer due to tolls and system charges. For the intelligent consumer, the “bargain hours” are now between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (with negative prices in the pool of -€0.03/MWh) and during the early hours of the morning. Forecasts. Is this an anecdote or a trend? The experts consulted by The Energy Newspaper, like Javier Revuelta from the consulting firm AFRYthey believe it is structural. Futures markets (forwards) for March and April are already trading lower (€40 and €25 respectively). The forecast is that 2026 will close with an average price of around €55/MWh. This strongly reopens the energy debate: if renewable energy is capable of covering demand at zero prices, the economic viability of maintaining the nuclear park—which cannot stop and start at will—becomes complicated. The “problem” of full reservoirs is, in reality, the sign that the marginalist electricity market creaks when the raw material is free and abundant. For the citizen, the lesson is clear: electricity is almost free, but only if you know how to look at the clock before turning on the switch. Image | freepik and freepik Xataka | The reservoir that would “never be filled” is opening its floodgates: 23 years later, the largest swamp in Western Europe is completely full

Mexico has a gigantic energy treasure under its feet. The plan to extract it is called fracking

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Mexico is walking on a treasure and, at the same time, on a political minefield. Under the land of states like Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, an energy giant sleeps: the sixth world reserves of unconventional gas. Waking him up was the great taboo of López Obrador’s six-year term, a red line drawn with the promise of “no to fracking“However, reality has knocked on the door of the National Palace. In a turn that redefines the new mandate, President Claudia Sheinbaum has faced an iron dilemma: staying true to the campaign promise of not using hydraulic fracturing or pursuing “energy sovereignty”, one of the almost mythical aspirations of the Mexican left, to stop depending on US gas. The president has already made a decision: she is willing to pay the political cost. What began as a rumor has become a budgetary and contractual reality in 2026. The data is compelling and leaves no room for doubt about the change in course. Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has increased its investment for this year in the “Gulf Tertiary Oil” program by 66%, going from 2,423 million pesos in 2025 to 4,016 million pesos in 2026, according to Treasury data obtained via transparency collected by The Universal. The machinery is already in motion. Pemex’s Strategic Plan (2025-2035) schedules the start of these operations after last year’s pilots. Pemex has awarded the first “mixed contracts” to private companies such as C5M, Geolis, CESIGSA and Petrolera Miahuapan. Although the state company retains the majority shareholding and control, it is the private parties who will provide the capital and technology, an urgent need for an oil company with a debt of more than 100 billion dollars. However, this injection of capital has raised alarm bells due to its opacity. The Mexican Alliance against Fracking denounces that in the 2026 Budget there are more than 245,000 million pesos allocated to gas projects that involve hydraulic fracturing, hidden under items that lack public breakdown and transparency, just as collected The Impartial. The semantics of dissimulation If he fracking was a “cursed word” in the previous six-year term, the new government has found a creative solution: change the dictionary. To avoid the political cost of openly announcing the use of fracking, the administration has chosen by a series of technical euphemisms. Rather frackingofficial documents speak of “reservoirs with complex geology” or “reservoir stimulation.” The general director of Pemex, Víctor Rodríguez Padilla, was blunt before the Senate: “We are not going to do frackingwe are taking advantage of technological development in evaluations of existing deposits.” But operational reality belies the rhetoric and breaks the discipline of official discourse. While euphemisms are used in the capital, on the ground urgency rules. The Undersecretary of Hydrocarbons of Tamaulipas, cited by The Countryrecently broke the taboo by declaring: “We talk it like it is here…hydraulic fracturing.” However, to understand the magnitude of the challenge, you have to look at the map. Pemex’s hopes are concentrated in three main basins: Burgos, Tampico-Misantla and Sabinas-Burro Picachos. The Burgos Basin is particularly relevant for being the natural extension towards the south of Eagle Ford in Texas, one of the deposits of shale most prolific of the American boom. If there is wealth north of the border, geology suggests there is wealth to the south as well. However, extracting this oil is not easy. The expert Miriam Grunstein illustrates the technical challenge starkly: the soil in these areas is a clayey “dump” and the crude oil has the density of “toothpaste.” This makes their exploitation extremely difficult, expensive and technologically demanding. Why go back to these complicated areas now? The answer is exhaustion. Pemex is pivoting toward the “unconventional” because its large conventional fields are drying up. It’s a portfolio decision to try to sustain the production platform in the face of the natural decline of traditional fields. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu Behind Sheinbaum’s turn is a real geopolitical fear. Mexico imports 70% of the gas it consumes from the United States. “If the United States closes the valve, Mexico will be left in the dark,” recognized the head of Pemex himself. But the scenario is even more complex with the neighbor above led by Donald Trump and his vision of natural resources as national security. Recently, Washington has deployed the Project Vaulta strategy to secure critical minerals and counter China, which includes “geological mapping” of Mexican resources. The pressure is such that the Mexican government has had to give in to the harshest pragmatism. It was the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, who summarized Mexico’s position regarding the US energy integration demands with a lapidary phrase: “If you are not at the table participating, you are on the menu.” Mexico has decided to sit at the table fracking to avoid being devoured. Furthermore, the lack of liquidity forces this opening. Reactivating the identified wells requires immediate investments of more than $1 billion, money that will now come from private partners. The decision has been made, but the results will not be immediate. Although investment skyrockets in 2026, specialists warn that the launch of massive exploitation will take between three and four years to yield tangible results. The government’s optimistic projections suggest that, in their most developed phase, these fields could provide an additional 300,000 barrels per day. To achieve this, the “Mixed Contracts” model will be the norm: Pemex collect immediate bonuses for the award (almost 50 million dollars in the first round alone) and lets the private parties assume the operational and financial risk. A very high price The cost of this decision is already being paid in credibility with the bases. Organizations like Greenpeace and the Mexican Alliance against Fracking They have accused Sheinbaum of “betraying the people who elected her.” The most critical point is water. In a country hit by drought, the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) estimates that 5.7 million liters of water are required per well. Greenpeace raise the alert citing the … Read more

Spain and Portugal have “free” energy right now. If we do not share it with Europe it is due to only one reason: France

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While the Iberian Peninsula registers a surplus of unprecedented renewable energy at bargain prices, the rest of the continent continues to be suffocated by triple-digit bills. In the middle of these two realities a wall rises, not of stone, but of political and nuclear interests: France. The northern neighbor acts as a plug that prevents cheap energy from the south from flowing north, protecting its atomic industry at the expense of European consumers’ pockets. Two Europes disconnected. The data from February 11 are a blow to the table of European integration. According to the records of OMIE and ESIOSthe average daily market price in Spain has plummeted to €4.23/MWh, with hours in which producers have had to pay for injecting energy (negative prices of -€0.42/MWh). The situation in Portugal is even more extreme: the megawatt hour is paid at €0.34, that is, practically free. However, it is enough to cross the Pyrenees for reality to change drastically. The price map ESIOS turns central and northern Europe red: Germany pays electricity at €100.62/MWh, Belgium at €72.04/MWh and the Netherlands at €88.70/MWh. France, strategically located in the middle, enjoys a comfortable price of €13.61/MWh, benefiting from buying cheaply from the south without missing out on the flow to its northern neighbors. This disparity perfectly visualizes the concept of “energy island”: a peninsula overflowing with resources that does not have enough bridges to share them. The great uncoupling of February. What we are experiencing these first two weeks of February is what experts call a “total decoupling.” According to the analysis of Aleasoft Energy Forecastingthe arrival of several Atlantic storms has triggered wind and hydroelectric generation on the peninsula. By adding the solar contribution, the supply has far exceeded the internal demand. The Iberian market (MIBEL) has seen how their prices They fell by 43% in Spain and a staggering 74% in Portugal in just one week, reaching daily averages of €0.54/MWh, values ​​that had not been seen since April 2024. Meanwhile, the Energy Charts graphs show that Germany has continued with prices oscillating above €100/MWh for much of January and early February, still depending on non-renewable sources. The drama of throwing away energy. Having cheap electricity seems like excellent news for the domestic consumer, but it hides a serious systemic inefficiency. As there are not enough cables to export this surplus to a Europe thirsty for cheap energy, Spain is forced to carry out curtailment (technical discharges). As we have already explained in Xatakawe are literally throwing away around 7% of clean energy because it “does not fit” into the grid and has no outlet. This scenario causes zero prices that, paradoxically, can ruin renewable investors, who need profitability to continue deploying parks. Furthermore, the situation has uncovered the seams of the Spanish internal network. The network is administratively “collapsed”: the CNMC has had to delay until May 2026 the publication of the capacity maps because, under the new security criteria, 90% of the network nodes appear saturated. Only 12% of connection requests are being approved, which means that we have the energy, but the cables are missing to bring it to new industries and homes. The French nuclear “bunker”. If there is excess energy in the south and lack in the north, why not build an electric highway? The answer has its own name: nuclear protectionism. President Emmanuel Macron has declared that interconnections They are a “false debate”arguing that Spain’s problem is a “100% renewable model that its own network does not support.” However, the data refute the Elysée story. As expert Joaquín Coronado explainsSpain is not 100% renewable (it closed 2025 at 55.5%) and, in fact, it was Spain that came to the rescue of France in 2022 and 2025, exporting electricity through its combined cycles when the French nuclear park failed due to corrosion and heat problems. The reality, according to the CEO of RedeiaRoberto García Merino, is that the blockade “is not technical, it is pure geostrategy.” France needs to make profitable a pharaonic investment of 300,000 million euros in its nuclear park and fears that the massive entry of Spanish solar energy, much cheaper, will sink the prices and competitiveness of its reactors. Therefore, Paris has explicitly excluded of its 2025-2035 network plan the key interconnection projects for Aragon and Navarra, keeping the Iberian Peninsula as an island with only 2.8% interconnection, very far from the European objective of 15%. Any solution on the table? Brussels’ patience is running out. The European Commission has already issued an ultimatum to Francegiving him a period of nine months to unblock the situation and present a political declaration of commitment. Meanwhile, the only project that advancesalthough slow, is the submarine cable through the Bay of Biscay. Redeia confirmed that the laying campaigns will begin this summer of 2026, with an eye on its entry into operation by 2028. An unsustainable contradiction. Within the European Union, it is happening that while one member country desperately seeks energy autonomy and competitive prices for its industry, it allows another of its key partners to keep the door to the south closed. Spain could be Europe’s green battery, but without export capacity, that wealth is diluted in negative prices and technical waste. Everything happens while France acts as a strict customs officer that protects its atoms, preventing the European Union from truly being an energy union. Image | freepik Xataka | The great electrical jam in Spain: we have plenty of electricity, but there are no cables to build houses and invest more

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