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Spain says new gas pipeline may take 7 years to build

A planned underwater energy pipeline linking Barcelona in Spain and Marseille in France could take up to seven years to build, Spain's energy minister said on Friday.

Published: 22 October 2022 12:53 CEST

Spain says new gas pipeline may take 7 years to build

Spain's Energy Minister Teresa Ribera Rodriguez said they need to study exactly how long the planned underwater pipeline will take to build. Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP

France, Spain and Portugal announced on Thursday they had agreed to build the maritime pipeline instead of a long-discussed overland pipeline across the Pyrenees that France opposed, but gave no timeline for its construction.

The underwater pipeline — dubbed BarMar — would initially be used for natural gas but, over time, more and more for hydrogen.

“This new design logically takes longer. We have to study whether it is five or six years, seven years,” Spain’s Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said during an interview with Catalunya Radio.

“Now is probably the most complicated part, which is to work with the technical teams of the various countries, of the different firms that have the capacity to design a project of these characteristics.”

Ribera said the three nations expect to get European Union funding for the project, which will allow the energy networks of Spain and Portugal to be connected to those in central Europe.

The announcement of the pipeline comes as Europe is racing to secure alternative energy supplies after Moscow slashed gas flows apparently in response to Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Spain and Portugal had lobbied hard for the construction of a 190-kilometre (120-mile) overland pipeline across the Pyrenees to France, which would allow the shipment of gas further on into Germany.

Initially launched in 2003, the MidCat project was dropped in 2019 over regulatory and funding issues.

But in the wake of Europe’s energy crisis sparked by the Ukraine war, Spain and Portugal revived talk of the project, which had the backing of Germany.

Its aim was to transport gas from Algeria through Spain to the rest of the European Union. There are currently only two small gas pipelines linking Spain and France.

READ ALSO: What is Spain’s new winter energy saving plan?

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Too hot or too cold: Spain's homes struggle to keep comfortable temperatures

Spaniards are increasingly finding it difficult to keep their houses at comfortable temperatures during the summers and winters, and the problem has grown markedly over the last decade.

This follows new data released from Living Conditions Survey recently published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), which revealed that over a quarter of families in Spain struggle to heat their homes sufficiently in winter and that a third are too hot in summer.

The percentage of households reporting difficulties in keeping their homes at a comfortable temperature has increased by almost ten percent overall in the last decade.

READ ALSO: Why are Spanish homes so cold?

In the colder months, the proportion that say they can’t keep their property sufficiently warm during winter has grown from 17.9 percent in 2012 to 27.5 percent in 2023.

The summer heat poses an even greater problem for Spaniards. The percentage of households struggling to keep their homes cool enough during the summer months has risen from a quarter (24.8 percent) to over a third (33.6).

READ ALSO: Ten ways to protect your Spanish property against the summer heat

This comes as Spain faces record breaking temperatures year round and rising energy costs. According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), 2023 was the third hottest summer since records began, surpassed only by 2022 and 2003.

In summer 2023 alone, four official heat waves were recorded, lasting a total of 24 days.

READ ALSO: How the right orientation of your Spanish home can save you hundreds on energy bills

However, though rising temperatures clearly play a role, so too does geography, income, and poor energy efficiency caused by poor insulation.

Murcia is the region where the highest proportion of households have problems keeping their homes cool in the summer, with almost half of families polled saying they are in this situation (46.6 percent). Murcia was followed by Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, Aragón and Extremadura, where the figure is 36 percent.

At the other extreme, in the cooler, northern regions of Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia, it is not even 20 percent.

Despite that, it is also the southern regions that struggle the most with keeping their houses warm enough during the winter. Murcia is once again the region where the highest percentage of families are unable to keep their homes at an adequate temperature over the colder months.

40.1 percent of Murcianos say they find it difficult to heat their homes over winter. In Andalusia and Extremadura the figure is almost 35 percent, the other two regions that top the list, meaning the three most southern regions of Spain came out on top.

In contrast, in Navarre, Castilla y León, and the Basque Country, less than a fifth (20 percent) of households report problems maintaining a sufficiently warm temperature at home during winter.

Household income also factors into this problem. INE data shows that the proportion of households struggling to maintain an adequate temperature in their homes increases as average income decreases. Among families with the lowest income levels, 38.9 percent say that they are cold in winter and 41.3 percent say that they are too hot in summer.

Of the regions that struggle to keep their homes warm or cool enough, Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura all have some of the lowest median per capita incomes in the whole country, along with some of the highest levels of poverty.

Equally, the parts of the country where this seems to be less of a problem, such as the Basque Country, Galicia, and Navarre, are some of the wealthiest regions of Spain.

Housing quality and insulation also contribute to poor energy efficiency, which in turn makes temperature control more difficult. Even among households with high incomes, 15 percent say that they are unable to heat their property sufficiently in winter and 24.8 percent struggle to keep it cool enough in summer.

According to INE data, a quarter (25.1 percent) of Spanish households have not made any improvements to their thermal insulation or heating system in the last year, significantly more than the 14.1 percent who have been able to make changes.

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