Energy and territory. Criteria for a new balance in Catalonia

Abstract

Humanity is at the gates of a double energy and environmental crisis due to the finiteness of fossil fuels and the repercussions of their use on the climate. For more than 200 years since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels, thanks to the abundance and availability of the energy which they provide, have been acquiring an increasingly decisive role (forming 80% of the human energy system today). Likewise, they have allowed great technical, economic and population development. In the transition towards renewable energies, though, it is necessary to allocate again large areas of land to the capture of energy, something which is not necessary with fossil fuels since the capture took place hundreds of millions of years ago. Moreover, it is necessary to cover energy needs that are much larger than those of pre-industrial times, when populations were much smaller and activities required much less energy. In Catalonia, where there is a large population distributed in a very unbalanced way, together with a developed economy and a rugged terrain, the coverage of these new territorial requirements is complex. This article presents criteria and establishes priorities on the territorial needs of energy and on its distribution, which should respect other uses and functions, especially ecosystemic ones. These criteria and priorities form the framework of the «Energy transition and territory» project that the CMES collective has been carrying out in recent years in collaboration with local study centres and other organizations.