opportunity

Until now, launching satellites was the business. The US has just turned its exorbitant cost into a million-dollar opportunity

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For years, the space business has revolved around a very specific idea: launch more satellites, faster and cheaper. The race to fill low Earth orbit with large constellations has skyrocketed demand and turned takeoff into a multibillion-dollar industry, but it has also brought to the table a problem that for a long time remained in the background: what to do with these satellites when they reach the end of their useful life and continue to take up space in orbit. In this context, the United States has taken a decisive step by promoting and beginning to materialize the exorbitant market. New business on the horizon. This step forward has already resulted in a concrete contract. Starfish Space has been awarded of an agreement valued at 52.5 million dollars by the Space Development Agency (SDA) of the United States Space Force to offer a service for deorbiting satellites at the end of their useful life. The assignment includes the development, launch and operation of the otter ship in low orbit intended to deorbit satellites of the PWSA when they are no longer operational, with a first operation and the possibility of carrying out several more. The launch is planned for 2027. behind the scenes. This shift cannot be understood without the economic context that has turned space into a high-volume industry. Global space launch services market reached $21.19 billion by 2025 and, according to estimates by Precedence Researchcould climb to 70,560 million in 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.56%. A substantial portion of that revenue comes from continuous satellite deployment, driven by constellations that require frequent launches to maintain and renew their in-orbit networks. An increasingly saturated orbit. Having thousands of satellites operating at the same time is not only a question of deployment, but also of end-of-cycle management. Those responsible for large constellations must decide whether to deorbit their satellites relatively early to limit the risk of orbital debris or whether to keep them active for as long as possible to extract their full economic and operational value. This tension, without a simple solution, has become one of the main drivers that push us to search for new formulas to manage the end of life in orbit. What changes with “deorbit-as-a-service”. Starfish’s proposal is based on separating the end of life of the satellite from its design and daily operation, allowing an external spacecraft to be responsible for deorbiting without requiring prior modifications to the devices in orbit. The company maintains that this approach allows operators to maximize the useful life of their constellations and delegate the retirement of those satellites that cannot deorbit themselves. The previous step. Although the deorbit mission has not yet launched, Starfish Space comes to this point with a previous history of in-orbit demonstrations. The company launched Otter Pup 1 in June 2023 and managed to maneuver it to within 1,000 meters of a target ten months later, a relevant milestone for approach and control operations. In October, an Impulse Space Mira spacecraft used Starfish software to approach another spacecraft to within 1,250 meters, and in June 2025, Otter Pup 2 was launched with the goal of performing the first commercial docking of satellites in low orbit. The big question to answer. What is now being tested is whether satellite deorbiting can go from being an exception to becoming a recurring industrial practice. The expansion of constellations and the pressure to keep low orbit operational force us to look for solutions that do not depend solely on each individual satellite. In this context, the United States’ decision to contract this type of services offers a first sign of where the sector can evolve, although its real scope can only be measured when the first missions begin to operate. Images | Starfish Space In Xataka | Human beings have not set foot on the Moon for 54 years: the mission that aims to correct it has just entered its final phase

There is an acute shortage of housing supply in Spain. So the convents of Toledo have seen an opportunity

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Toledo has had an idea to reinforce the meager housing supply in its historic center. In the city there is the curious contradiction that there is demand for flats for rent while around 150 buildings of the monumental area (both public and private) remain closed and without tenants, so… Why not solve both problems at once? With that philosophy as a backdrop, two convents in Toledo are preparing to become landlords and allocate part of their buildings to rent. The historic center sees its housing offer expand (although still timidly) and in the process the religious orders obtain a new source of income. Quite a ‘win-win’. What has happened? That in Toledo they want to kill several birds with one stone. For some time now, its historic center has faced three challenges that, although at first glance they seem to have little to do with each other, are directly related. The first is the shortage of residential rentals. In Idealista, just over a few are announced right now. 50 apartments for lease and many of them do so as seasonal rentals. For long stays the offer is only 33. The second challenge is represented by abandoned buildings. Last year, the Consortium of the City of Toledo did the math and found that in that same area of ​​the Castilian-La Mancha capital, 150 buildings unused, some in ruins. The third challenge is not so much the city itself but the religious orders that live there: How to achieve income in the 21st century? Where to get money to pay bills or unforeseen events such as repairing the roof of the Discalced Carmelites convent, sunk during a DANA in 2023? Connecting the dots. The Toledo Consortium has come to the conclusion that these three challenges can be connected and has had an idea: to renovate wasted spaces in convents in the city to convert them into homes. And not just any type of housing. Their objective is to move them to the long-term rental market, the one that has the most difficulties in the historic center and more pressured It is seen through tourism. For that purpose, in November The organization gave the green light to the tender for the renovation of two properties: one located in the convent of the Discalced Carmelites and the other in the Immaculate Conception (Nasturtiums). Between them there will be four homes. “New opportunities”. The objective, explains the manager of the Consortium, Jesús Corroto, is to advance in the recovery of the disused heritage of the historic center and in the process generate “new residential opportunities”, especially for young people. The idea is to rehabilitate a building attached to the Discalced Carmelites convent with 131,000 euros to provide it with two new homes with a total constructed area of ​​130 m2. Investments will be made in the Capuchinas property. 130,000 euros to open two new residences in what was once the Priestly House, built at the end of the 16th century. In any case, the organization wants to go further and not stay in those four apartments. The SER chain indicates that it aspires to enable at least a dozen of housing and has already transferred more proposals to other convents. Whether they go ahead or not will basically depend on the budget and what the religious decide. After all, the buildings are private, non-segregable and considered BIC. The initiative would allow the creation between 20 and 30 housesto which other services can be added, such as parking. “Rental ethics”. In the case of the new homes set up in convents, a peculiar circumstance will occur: the Consortium is in charge of the works, but unlike what happens with other accommodation promoted by the Municipal Housing Company, its price will not be limited by a maximum limit. Since these are private properties, it is the religious who must decide what rents they charge to their future tenants, although Corroto already advances in The Country that a “rental ethic” will govern. What the organization he directs has done is put an inflexible condition on the friars and monks of Toledo: the new homes must be dedicated to residential rentals, not become tourist apartments, a business that has already attracted other religious of Spain who have seen the need to take advantage of their buildings. In Seville, for example, not long ago some cloistered nuns agreed to offer a part of their convent to tourists through Airbnb. The reason: selling candy is no longer enough to pay bills. Between 37 and 60 m2. In the case of Toledo, the objective is for the new homes to be available in about a year. To make it possible, the religious orders will assume part of the works and furniture. Once the project is completed, the city will have new apartments with a useful area of between 37 and 60 m2. The residences will have to comply with the regulations that govern the Historic Center of Toledo and will have between one and two rooms. Images | Suraya_M (Flickr) and Wikipedia (Antonio Velez) In Xataka | Toledo has had enough of the mass tourism that saturates the city center. His plan to change it: China

other airlines have seen their opportunity

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A dead king, a king. This saying perfectly summarizes what is happening in the airports of northern Spain after Ryanair’s decision to cut its presence in regional airports. after his scuffle with AENA for airport taxes. The most affected airports Due to the cutback in Ryanair’s operations in Spain, they are concentrated in Galicia (-80%), Asturias (-16%), Cantabria (-38%) and the Basque Country, where the Irish company had built a very relevant position in low-cost flights and now leaves a gap that conditions the connectivity of residents and tourists. However, other airlines They are taking advantage of Ryanair’s withdrawal to occupy their space with more flight offers and new routes. ​Fewer places, but more routes. The Cantabrian coast is one of the main areas affected by these Ryanair cuts. According to data of RTVEthe balance of the 41% cut in the peninsular airports represents 600,000 fewer seats (spaces are eliminated in some, but they are increased in the most profitable airports), but the company has eliminated bases and routes in various parts of the country, with a special impact on the airports of Asturias, Santander, Vigo and, especially in Santiago, which is facing the final stretch of its works. The result of this movement has been an adjustment in the capacity and repertoire of airlines: Vueling, Iberia Express, Volotea and others have expanded their seats at these airports and have created new routes to take advantage of the freed demand. Vueling, for example, raises an increase of 15% in its offer of places for Santiago de Compostela. According what was published by The Economistthe IAG group would also have announced new routes from the Irish Aer Lingus that connect Santiago and Cork, as well as Dublin and Asturias, while KLM will link Amsterdam with Galicia and Asturias. ​Volotea takes over in Bilbao. While Ryanair reduces its presence in the Basque Country, Volotea has announced the increase in its activity in the north of the peninsula, with Bilbao as one of the main axes. The company foresees by 2026 “a 10% increase in its capacity from Bilbao by 2026 —which also represents a growth of 320% compared to 2018, the year the base was inaugurated—, approaching the 730,000 seats offered and reinforcing its commitment to the region.” This will be Volotea’s largest seat offering at this airport since the beginning of its operations. This move makes the airline one of the main actors called to occupy the space left by Ryanair in the north. It will also expand its operations at the Santander airport, where it will not only consolidate its current routes, but also plan to open new international connections to Cantabria. ​A market in recomposition. The gap left by the Ryanair cut has activated a response from other airlinesbut the previous volume of operations has not yet been reached in all airports, showing an asymmetric recovery. While airports such as Vigo or Santiago are still far from achieving this recovery of seats, others such as Bilbao or Santander register a positive balance with an increase in operations of 10% and 1.4% thanks to the strengthening of the position of Ryanair’s rivals at those airports. That is, the withdrawal of Ryanair has meant that its rivals have recovered in just a few months 41% of the share that the Irish airline previously had, which will increase throughout 2026. ​Less negotiating pressure for Ryanair. The political dimension of the conflict also influences the recomposition of the market. Faced with this new scenario, institutions and regional administrations are seeking agreements with new airlines to sustain key routes and avoid a further deterioration in connectivity, while the market moves towards greater diversification of operators. The increase in weight of other operators on the airport board of these airports takes away the strength of the pressure strategy of the Irish company, which could use its withdrawal as a measure to obtain better conditions at other airports compared to AENA. In Xataka | In the midst of the battle between Ryanair and Aena, there is a Spanish airport that is suffering more than any other: Valladolid Image | Ryanair, Volotea

The lack of generational change has opened a job opportunity for thousands of young people in Spain: bus driver

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The driver shortage In Spain and Europe it has generated an opportunity for those looking for a stable and well-paid job. Municipal companies are fighting to hire new talents who want to train as drivers of their city buses. The lack of generational change in passenger transportation is a problem that affects many local companies, which cannot fill the vacancies left by retiring drivers. The shortage of drivers in Spain and Europe. According to published data According to the European employment body EURES, in 2023 there were 105,000 vacancies for bus and coach drivers in Europe, which represents 10% of all positions in the sector and an increase in vacancies of 54% compared to the previous year. In Spain the situation is not better. The driver shortage already an officially recognized structural problem. The deficit affects both the freight and passenger transport sectors, and contrasts with the surplus in other professions such as administrative or technical personnel. The forecasts of the transport sector is that, by 2026, 37,000 new bus drivers and about 126,000 truck drivers will be needed. Why are there drivers missing? Among the structural factors that aggravate the shortage of drivers, the absence of a generational change. According to a report According to the Spanish Bus Transport Confederation (CONFEBUS), the aging of the workforce is one of the main reasons for this shortage. Data recorded by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) included in the EURES report indicated that, in many European countries, less than 5% of drivers are under 25 years old. Furthermore, the incorporation of women to the sector is very low, since only 12% of drivers in the EU are women. He sector It estimates that it will need about 24,000 new drivers per year to compensate for the rate of retirement of current staff. CONFEBUS also recognizes that working conditions in the sector Nor have they helped to attract young people: long hours, irregular shifts, temporary contracts and poor family conciliation. Access to training and certification is another obstacle, since the obtaining the CAP or the D permit entails a high cost, especially for young people or migrants who do not have sufficient economic resources and find there a barrier to accessing these jobs. Government aid for training. Precisely to alleviate this economic obstacle when obtaining permission to transport goods and passengers, the Government has promoted a Royal Decree which gives the green light to the Reconduce Plan, which offers aid of up to 3,000 euros to cover the costs of training and obtaining a bus or truck driver’s license. This helps is directed to people who want to train in the road transport sector and is available to cover the costs of the necessary courses and exams. The conditions to access this aid include being registered in the National Youth Guarantee System and meeting the age and training requirements demanded by the Ministry of Transport. Driverless buses. Faced with a prospect of constant staff shortages due to the progressive aging of the population, more and more city councils are deciding to start pilot tests with autonomous buses on their streets, not without some reluctance among the current driver templates. For example, in August the first test of this style was launched in Barcelona, ​​allowing a driverless bus to cover a short 10-minute stretch in open traffic. Our colleague Iván Linares tried it in first person. Madrid has just started a similar test autonomous bus, although in this case its scope of circulation is limited to Mercamadrid. These projects seek to modernize urban transportation and guarantee mobility, although they are still in the experimental phase, so they do not represent a short-term solution to the problem of driver shortages. In Xataka | Barcelona has grown tired of fining 80 cars a day for invading the bus lane. So he’s going to start monitoring them with AI Image | Wikimedia Commons (KingValid04)

The AI ​​is obsessed with which we are talking to her. He has a golden opportunity in an unsuspected place: our lounge

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Microsoft has sneaked into Samsung’s teles. This has been announced by both companies, which have reached an agreement so that Copilot is part both of the future Smart TVS and the company’s monitors. It is an interesting announcement not so much for what it means for these two companies, but for the tendency to which it points. Why is it important. Here Microsoft achieves a small triumph for its artificial intelligence solutions, and does so by the hand of a giant like Samsung. But here what attracts attention is that First great integration of AI in products that until now did not want to know much about it. Talk without stopping with TV. Our televisions are perfect candidates for adapted systems specifically to them, and this is a striking step in that direction. The command continues and will continue to be better in many cases (button to rise volume instead of “rises the volume a bit”, for example), no doubt. However, The Chromecast or the Fire TV Stick They already showed us that saying “reproduces the trailer of ‘Superman’” or “reproduces ‘Stranger Things’ in Netflix” is also a very powerful option. An AI to go further. Those functions of the traditional voice attendees of the teles are interesting, but having a model of AI as a co -pilot will allow that experience beyond and Interact with TV in a more versatile way. You can ask for time and visual information will appear accompanying audio information, for example, or by a movie and a card with its IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes qualification will also appear. Where did I stay with this series yesterday? And of course, we can ask us to recommend a movie – “What mystery film must be fun?” – Or that gives us related information about it – “What more movies has made the director of this film? We can talk with Copilot Normally on any subject, because after all, it is a generative AI and are designed for that purpose. The speakers, the next border. There is another hardware element that awaits the arrival of AI as a May water: smart speakers. That intelligent have never had much: Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, already said years ago that these devices “They were more silly than a stone“. The option of being able to talk to these products when they are enhanced by a generative model such as Chatgpt or its rivals is very promising, and the curious thing is that at this point we should already have a great protagonist in this field. What vadis, Alexa+? Amazon is undoubtedly the great absentee of the AI ​​segment, and for months now Alexa+ presentedits new platform with generative AI models that in theory Ibn to flood your family of Amazon Echo devices. The deployment, however, is being infuriatingand the project still has a very limited reach, we assume that because they prefer to go on safe. The privacy dilemma. It is inevitable to think that one of the possible risks that will involve the use of these devices with this technology will be the invasion of our privacy. We already know How do TVS manufacturers spend them With its users in this section, and the traditional smart speakers have already built many suspicions about it In the past. In addition, where is the limit between a useful and an annoying or invasive presence in the living room? The battle to conquer your lounge started has. It seems inevitable that AI ends up being an integral part of our televisions as it begins to be in our computers or mobiles. Smart speakers are specially prepared so that in the future we talk more than ever with them, but will there be other hardware solutions that go further? Domestic robots, maybe? There is in this segment a huge challenge in many sections – non -invasive experience and, as far as possible, private – but also an extraordinary opportunity. And Microsoft, for the moment, has seen it. Image | Jens Kreuter In Xataka | There is a new fever among ultra -ups: fed up with technology, they want houses as “dumb” as possible

There is a single opportunity in 11,000 years of reaching the planet Sedna. Some Italians want to use this nuclear engine

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A team of Italian scientists has drawn a plan to achieve one of the most distant and enigmatic objects of our solar system: the Dwarf Planet Sedna. Two options. Research, Prepublished in Arxivdetails two concepts of spacecraft to drastically shorten the trip to Sedna. Not only with the aim of doing so in less time, but also quick enough to arrive before the dwarf planet immerses itself in the dark of deep space for thousands of years. One of them is a high -tech solar candle that, according to researchers, could make the journey in just seven years. The other is a nuclear fusion rocket that would do it in about ten, but with a great advantage: it could enter orbit once there. The moment is key. He Planet Sednadiscovered in 2003, has an extremely eccentric orbit that lasts about 11,000 years. In 2076 he will reach his perihelio, the point of his orbit closest to the Sun, although “close” is a relative term: it will be almost 11,000 million kilometers, about three times the distance from Neptune to our star. It is a unique opportunity in millennia to send a probe. With current rocket technology, such a trip would require between 20 and 30 years, which would force to develop in record time an incredibly complex and high -budget mission. The cheap alternative. The first option is A solar candle that takes advantage of the thrust of the photons of the sun To propel the ship, a concept already tested in missions such as Lightsail 2 of planetary society. However, this candle would go one step further: it would be covered with a material that, when heated with sunlight, released molecules through a thermal disorption process that provided an additional thrust. Thanks to Jupiter’s gravitational assistance, this ultralight ship could reach SEDNA in just seven years. The great advantage is that it would not need to load with the weight of the fuel. The disadvantage is that I could only overflow, quickly through Sedna, As did the New Horizons probe with Pluto. I would collect valuable data, but the meeting would be brief. The ambitious alternative. The second proposal is more ambitious: a rocket driven by the direct fusion engine that is already being developed in the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University. This engine would not only generate thrust, but also electrical energy from a controlled nuclear fusion reaction, offering continuous and powerful acceleration. A trip with the nuclear engine would have been ten years. Although it is slower than the solar candle, it has a major prize: the ability to insert the ship into the Sedna orbit, making possible a much more detailed long -term study of its surface, its composition and its interaction with the space environment compared to the solar candle. Why Sedna? Not only because it is a transneptunian object, an ice cream that orbits beyond Neptune. Its reddish surface and its extreme orbit make it a pristine relic of the formation of the solar system. Scientists believe Sedna could contain organic compounds and water ice, the original “bricks” of the planets. Since most of its time passes far from the Sun, its surface has been protected from radiation and heat, being almost intact. One of the most fascinating hypotheses is that Sedna could be an exoplanet captured by our solar system during a stellar encounter in the past. Being able to analyze its in situ composition would literally study material from another star system without leaving ours. Image | CSWANCMU (CC) In Xataka | Electronuclear and Nuclear Fusion Propulsion are the options of science to take us to deep space

We thought that Japan’s tourist boom was an opportunity for AI. It has become an unexpected remedy

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Japan is one of those countries that one thinks knowing without having stepped on it. For his millenary temples, For their trains that exceed 300 km/hfor its technology and for its robots. That is why it does not strange that Millions of people Make the bags every year to travel their cities, their mountains and even its less known rural areas. What is surprising is this: how AI begins to break through where, until now, only human talent was accepted. The paradox is as Japanese as its culture: a country where hospitality is deeply valued, and, at the same time, where those who can practice it are scarce. Because if something has revealed the tourist tsunami that Japan is receiving is that the lack of bilingual guides has become a serious problem. It is not new. Many retired during the difficult years that the sector was going through during the pandemic, others changed from sector. But now the situation squeezes, and the country begins to respond. Where before there was a guide with smile, now there is an app with ia The scarcity of guides is not an anecdote. It is a reality that begins to leave a mark on the experience of thousands of travelers. As Nikkei Asia collectsJapan had something more than 46,000 bilingual guides. The figure included both licensed professionals and certified by local governments, and even people with sufficient knowledge and to perform that role. Four years later, the figure had fallen almost 20%. In 2023 there were about 37,700. The trend is still down. The reasons are understood quickly. The pandemia devastated the tourist calendars, froze reservations and left thousands of guides Freelance No stable income. Many looked for another way. Some retired. And although years have passed since those times, what has remained is an aging template: about 60 % of licensed guides are over 60 years old. If we talk about the official exam, in 2024 only 380 people approved it. The agencies notice it. Some recognize that they have had to Cancel or reprogram tours Because, simply, there was no one available to attend them. Before, when their workforce was at the limit, they could resort to independent professionals. Now, not that. And although Since 2018 Japan allows Make payment tours without the need for the official license, a good part of tourists and agencies continue to prefer authorized guides, with knowledge, accreditations and, above all, trust. Today, in places like Okinawa, there are tourists who prefer the robotic voice of applications such as the operator Cerulean Blue before running out of tour. The system detects its location by means of the mobile GPS, shows real -time information with augmented reality and active audioguías as the visitor advances. That gesture, almost imperceptible, says much of the present … and perhaps also of the future. Because AI still does not improvise jokesHe does not feel pride when talking about his city, he does not respond with a smile. But when the guide does not arrive, technology seems to be ready to respond. And the most interesting thing is that tourism is not an isolated case. What is happening with the guides is part of a broader pattern that begins to be noticed strongly in Japan. In agriculture, for example, Companies are using Apps based on AI capable of identifying plants diseases with just one photo. In schools, English teachers do not supply, so some already use virtual assistants who talk with students. In public administration, municipalities Like Yokosuka They have started using Chatgpt To summarize meetings and write documents. According to calculations of the Consistory itself, the time saving is counted in thousands of hours a year. All this responds to the same structural problem: the lack of hands. Japan is a technological power, yes. But it is also a country that is aging and has a very low birth rate. Images | Micah Camper | Angel | Geoff Oliver In Xataka | Japan has realized that to welcome 60 million tourists, something lacks: workers in the hotels

A US nuclear power plant was going to close after running out of subsidies. Mark Zuckerberg has taken the opportunity to keep it

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Training large models of artificial intelligence consumes so much energy that technology companies are “appropriate” of nuclear power plants. Goal saves a nuclear power plant. Goal, the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp matrix, He has just signed an agreement which symbolizes paradigm shift. The company led by Mark Zuckerberg has saved a nuclear power plant that had the days of a 20 -year contract. Constellation Energy Corp., the largest nuclear operator in the United States, will supply 1,121 megawatts of energy from its Central de Clinton, in Illinois, directly to the target data centers. The contract will begin in mid -2027 and will be in force until 2047. It is not a casual date. 2027 is when the state subsidy that kept the Clinton nuclear power plant. To understand it you have to rewind 10 years until 2017. At that time, the Clinton Power Station, like so many other nuclear centrals in the US, was on the tightrope. Unable to compete with the low prices of natural gas and the rise of renewables, its then owner, Exelon, threatened to close it. Only an intervention in extremis From the Illinois government, which approved a 10 -year subsidies package, the oxygen ball it needed. A Big Tech knocked on the door. Finally, it will be a technological giant, in full boom of generative artificial intelligence, which stays with the Illinois Central. Total goal consumption It has been quasite Between 2019 and 2023. Training and operating generative AI models requires giant data centers running at full performance 24 hours a day. This is where the main weakness of renewable energy sources is shown, such as photovoltaic or wind solar: despite being a key piece of the stark strategy of technology companies, their intermittency makes them an insufficient option. Nuclear energy, with a massive and stable supply, complete the puzzle allowing companies to maintain their commitments to be neutral in carbon emissions. Goal is not alone. The goal is the last one, but it is not an isolated case. Rather, it is the confirmation of a strategic trend that has been consolidated in the last two years. Technological giants have gone from signing energy purchase agreements with renewables to actively seek the stability of atomic energy. In a movement similar to Microsoft, Microsoft signed an agreement with Constellation for Reactivate Reactor 1 of the Three Mile Island Central (famous for the accident of your reactor 2). The Central, which had been closed in 2019, now feeds the Azure data centers for AI. Amazon Web Services has moved directly to a nuclear power plant. In March 2024 bought for 650 million dollars A gigantic data center adjacent to the Susquehanna plant, in Pennsylvania. The agreement guarantees 960 MW of direct energy for its AI operations. Image | Constellation Energy, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) In Xataka | Japan’s energy gauge: after trying to become independent from its nuclear, it has had to back down

The price of negative light is a problem. It is also the biggest opportunity to reindustrialize Spain in decades

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See the wholesale price of light to zero euros or even negative has ceased to be an anecdote for become a daily phenomenon In Spain. Symptom that renewables dominate the energy mix, is a growing obstacle to the profitability of electricity, but is still cheap energy. And as such, it is the best opportunity to reindustrialize Spain in a long time. Why it happens. “Zero or negative prices are a symptom of abundance of renewable resources to generate electricity,” analyst Pedro Cantuel, who works in Ignis’s energy management, explains to Xataka. In the central hours of the day, when photovoltaic production is massive, renewables flood the network with a practically null marginal cost, which collapses prices in the wholesale market. The time to reindustrialize. The abundance of cheap energy puts Spain in a competitive advantage position against its European neighbors. If Spain can offer clean energy to a very low cost, it becomes a magnet for industries that devour electricity, such as data centers, metallurgy or new green chemical industry. “In the European context, I think this can happen, since Spain could offer more competitive electricity than some of its neighbors,” explains Sergio Fernández Munguía, engineer of the renewable sector and author of Windletter. “In a global context, industrial electricity in Spain is still expensive because the invoice includes many other items beyond the cost of electricity.” Who has to adapt to who. The industrial model of the twentieth century was based on a premise: the energy was available 24/7 at a more or less stable cost. The renewables have broken this scheme: their production is intermittent. The traditional solution is to store that energy with batteries or pumping centrals, but the high cost of these facilities has dragged their deployment. Fernando Rodríguez, an industrial engineer of the energy sector, believes that the true revolution is not only to attract the usual industries, but to create those of tomorrow. The solution, according to Rodríguez, is that the industry adapts to energy until there is economic storage, and not vice versa: “The industry of the future will have to work with greater inventories, as was the case before the imposition of the imposition of the Just in time“ Flexible and modular manufacturing. The idea is to design industrial processes that can operate in full load when energy is almost free and reduce its activity or stop when it is expensive, without losing efficiency. It is already happening in adaptable industries such as recycling, large -scale 3D printing or desalination, which can program their consumption peaks for maximum solar generation hours. Concrete cases? In the United States, the Alcoa Warrick aluminum giant already adjusts its production to the available renewable generation. In Germany, the School of Engineers of Munich and Linde have designed an ammonia plant that works both 100% and 10% of its capacity, adapting to the production of Hydrogen Grandolytic. The industry will be where renewables are. Rodríguez believes that an industrial relocation will be necessary, and gives as an example the failure of the German “electric highways, a project to carry wind energy from the north to the industrial south that will end up costing more than 140,000 million euros. “Industrial companies must relocate near the new centers of gravity of electric production,” he explains. In Spain, this means taking factories to areas with more sun and wind, creating development poles in places that until now were not industrial foci. If energy is free, who will build the central? The cheap energy avalanche has an inevitable counterpart that puts the entire system at risk. If prices are zero, producers’ income are also. “Negative or zero prices discourage new investments,” confirms Sergio Fernández. “Especially in photovoltaic, those who are making numbers for new plants will see that their expected income in the market is lower than a few years ago and, therefore, also their profitability.” A nipe castle. This problem not only affects future renewable plants, but also the support that guarantees that we have light when there is no sun or wind: combined gas cycles. “As the price of the wholesale market falls,” says Fernando Rodríguez, “the growing opportunity cost will leave investments to generation, transport, distribution and marketing without investors and without financing.” The long -term danger is evident: a total break in the investment that leads us to an obsolete and unable to meet future demand. Without a robust system, there is no possible competitive economy. To take advantage of the industrial opportunity, Spain has to strengthen its nipe castle, and it is not enough to touch the prices artificially. The attack plan. The first bottleneck is the electricity bill. Although energy in the wholesale market is cheap, the invoice is still expensive. For Pedro Cantuel, the solution goes through a “drastic reduction in the final invoice eliminating taxes, bringing system charges to the general state budgets and reduce regulated costs.” The second problem is oversupply. How is demand increased? Cantuel proposes to “encourage electrification to replace the consumption of winter gas with electricity.” And at an industrial level, support great consumers “with the same mechanisms that our German or French competitors have, facilitating the connection of new demand to the network. Spain before its historical opportunity. A turning point that can allow the country to reindustrialize sustainably and become an energy power in Europe. But time runs, and it is essential to “create a national long -term plan that provides stability and certainty to the sector,” claims Cantuel, who defines as a priority “set clear rules for storage and new vectors, such as hydrogen.” The relationship between electric and the government is enquisted by the 7% tax on the generation. Consumers complain that the distribution toll “far exceeds real network costs.” Defining the rules of a competitive New Spain requires a country plan that puts all interested parties to row in the same direction. Without an ambitious and coordinated plan, today’s abundance could become the precariousness of tomorrow. In Xataka | The light price is … Read more

Denmark’s life expectancy has grown. His politicians have taken the opportunity to raise the retirement age up to 70 years

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Demographic aging is putting serious to the labor market and the pension systems of countries around the world. Most European countries have already taken measures in this regard delaying retirement age legal for your workers. However, Denmark has been the most expeditious: from 2040, Danish workers will have to wait until he turned 70 to retire. With this reform, Denmark is like the country with the Higher retirement age from Europe. Progressive increase up to 70 years. According to what was published by The media Danes, the Danish Parliament has approved with 81 votes in favor and 21 votes against the new law that will raise the retirement age from the current 67 years to 70 years in 2040. According to explained The British BBCthe process will be carried out progressively, progressively looking at 68 by 2030, the 69 by 2035 and, finally, reaching up to 70 years in 2040. More pensions for a longer time. In 2006, the Danish parliamentary arc parties signed the well -being agreement in which the country’s life expectancy was indexed. That measure served as the basis for Danish retirement age It will rise From the 65 years they had in 2004, at the 67th that was reached in 2019. However, last year the Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the variable escalation of the retirement age should be renegotiated to shorten the increases in increases. Reducing these deadlines would serve to adapt to the current life expectancy of the country. According to data of the Better Life Index From the OECD, Denmark has an 82 -year half -life expectancy. Are they too many years? Some Danish workers consider the new retirement age excessive. In statements To the public station Denmark Radio, Tommas Jensen, roof assembler, assured that he had undergone knee surgery, shoulder and back. “I just turned 47 and I see that I have many years left in the labor market. Maybe I have to look for a new profession.” Jesper Ettrup Rasmussen, president of one of the main union confederations in the country, described the proposal as “totally unfair.” “Denmark has a healthy economy, and yet imposes the highest retirement age of the entire European Union. A later retirement means losing the right to a decent life in old age.” In the same line He manifested Trade union leader Henning Overgaard, who considered that working until 70 was unfeasible for jobs with greater physical demand. “Many politicians have gone to university. You can read reports and see statistics, but that does not replace having risen at four in the morning with frost in the beard and the back hunched over by yesterday’s turn,” said the unionist. Europe retires between 65 and 67 years. Given the progressive aging of the European population, most European countries have chosen to delay the retirement age of their workers to maintain the stability of their pension systems. Nevertheless, According to data From the Finnish pension center, most European countries have maintained their retirement fork between 65 and 67 years. The measure that the Danish Parliament has taken is the most ambitious in terms of postponement of the retirement age of its workers. In Spain, the legal retirement age It remains in the 65 years until 2027 provided that a minimum of 38 years and six months have been quoted. If this requirement is not met, the minimum age to retire will increase progressively until reaching 67 years in 2027. In 2025, the legal age to retire if 38 years and three months or more have been quoted and more is 66 years and eight months. In Xataka | There is a man who has been working for the same company for 86 years. And you have no plans to retire In Xataka | From the “great resignation” to “great prejubilation”: the labor market loses the experience of those over 55 years Image | Unspash (Diana Parkhouse, Hannah Thiel)

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