Spain has barred all commercial buildings from setting their thermostat below 80 degrees in summer. It would also ban setting thermostats above 66 degrees in winter. The moves are prompted by the country’s reliance on Russian gas.
If this applies to individual hotel rooms (rather than just public areas), then I'd put a lot of money on demand soaring for Airbnbs and other private apartment rentals next summer. 27C (80F) is wayyyyy too warm to sleep IMO. https://t.co/yZxSRy8BYW
— Becky Pokora (@sightDOING) August 3, 2022
These rules are also recommendations for homes though fewer than 10% of homes across Europe have air conditioning (with greater penetration the further south in Europe you go, and Western Europe having more air conditioning than Eastern Europe).
And since these rules apply to airports, too, some of you will want to reconsider connections through Madrid. And while we’re planning watch out for homes with coin-operated air conditioning in Airbnb’s in Spain.
It seems like Spain should be doubling down on nuclear power, rather than phasing it out, since it wouldn’t just expand their power-generating capacity it would be better for the environment than Russian gas. Even if you somehow think nuclear power entails risk (it’s less risky than you think) that has to be weighed against the environmental risks of the power sources they’re actually using right?
France is lovely and pragmatic about nuclear
@Greg
Not really. There are a lot of maintenance that have been delayed for years and this causes issues currently in the heat of this summer. Lots of plants are not working.
Exceptionnal and anti-ecological mesures have been recently authorised to send more warm water back in the rivers in the again current heat of this summer: think about the fishes suffering from that…
And there is a beluga in Rouen where he shall be in the sea…
Looking for an AirBnb in Berlin next year, I’m having trouble finding one with AC. No, Berlin isn’t Madrid when it comes to heat, but it’s still quite hot this summer (and probably next) when there’s no A/C in which to cool off a bit. As a native Texan now living in Austin, I can say that A/C is what has made living here bearable. You get hot, but can cool down relatively easily.
One of the coldest days skiing I ever experienced was skiing in Spain.
Bitterly cold, viciously windy, yet a high humidity content, topped off by poor snow conditions. I wouldn’t think all those conditions could come together at once… but Spain.
uugh.
Please stay home. Maybe send the year learning how to act when ina foreign country.
Spain is looking to boost its ESG score. People are paying the price for environmental radicals’ costly fearmongering. Here’s a bunch of eco-pocalyptic predictions we’ve had to put up with:
1. 1967: Dire Famine Forecast By 1975
2. 1969: Everyone Will Disappear In a Cloud Of Blue Steam By 1989 (1969)
3. 1970: Ice Age By 2000
4. 1970: America Subject to Water Rationing By 1974 and Food Rationing By 1980
5. 1971: New Ice Age Coming By 2020 or 2030
6. 1972: New Ice Age By 2070
7. 1974: Space Satellites Show New Ice Age Coming Fast
8. 1974: Another Ice Age?
9. 1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life (data and graph)
10. 1976: Scientific Consensus Planet Cooling, Famines imminent
11. 1980: Acid Rain Kills Life In Lakes (additional link)
12. 1978: No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend (additional link)
13. 1988: Regional Droughts (that never happened) in 1990s
14. 1988: Temperatures in DC Will Hit Record Highs
15. 1988: Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not)
16. 1989: Rising Sea Levels will Obliterate Nations if Nothing Done by 2000
17. 1989: New York City’s West Side Highway Underwater by 2019 (it’s not)
18. 2000: Children Won’t Know what Snow Is
19. 2002: Famine In 10 Years If We Don’t Give Up Eating Fish, Meat, and Dairy
20. 2004: Britain will Be Siberia by 2024
21. 2008: Arctic will Be Ice Free by 2018
22. 2008: Climate Genius Al Gore Predicts Ice-Free Arctic by 2013
23. 2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World
24. 2009: UK Prime Minister Says 50 Days to ‘Save The Planet From Catastrophe’
25. 2009: Climate Genius Al Gore Moves 2013 Prediction of Ice-Free Arctic to 2014
26. 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2015 (additional link)
27. 2014: Only 500 Days Before ‘Climate Chaos’
28. 1968: Overpopulation Will Spread Worldwide
29. 1970: World Will Use Up All its Natural Resources
30. 1966: Oil Gone in Ten Years
31. 1972: Oil Depleted in 20 Years
32. 1977: Department of Energy Says Oil will Peak in 1990s
33. 1980: Peak Oil In 2000
34. 1996: Peak Oil in 2020
35. 2002: Peak Oil in 2010
36. 2006: Super Hurricanes!
37. 2005 : Manhattan Underwater by 2015
38. 1970: Urban Citizens Will Require Gas Masks by 1985
39. 1970: Nitrogen buildup Will Make All Land Unusable
40. 1970: Decaying Pollution Will Kill all the Fish
41. 1970s: Killer Bees!
The correction the world’s “leaders” are inviting is going to make the French Revolution look like a day at the carnival.
@Gary – “…that has to be weighed against the environmental risks of the power sources…”
…and geopolitical. It was always stupid to rely on Russian gas, but that should have been painfully obvious after they invaded Crimea in 2014. Whatever one’s take on the environmental impacts of nuclear, it has the unique advantage of being fairly easy to develop one’s own supply of fuel. Nuclear power means you don’t have to kowtow to Putin (or anyone else that might have an interest in fossil fuels, like Saudia).
I’ve never understood Europeans hesitation to A/C. It’s more important to quality of life and health than heat – you can wear sweaters and use blankets and space heaters for the several weeks a year Europe has subfreezing temperatures. But the lack of energy and poor sleep that occurs with high heat for 3-4 months a year in europe is much worse and not manageable by just taking off clothes.
People are much more productive when in a cooler environment.
France and Spain are fascinating studies. They share a large border and to a great degree share the same natural resources.
Both had a wake-up call during the OPEC oil embargo in the early 70s. Spain went back to sleep. France said “never again” and doubled down on their domestic nuclear energy program.
Fast forward.
Spain is overly dependent on Russian natural gas.
France gets 90% of their electricity from domestic nuclear and largely doesn’t care about Russian shenanigans with natural gas prices.
France chose wisely. Spain did not and is paying a hell of a price.
I feel for Europeans, but so much of it is of their own making. Germany, for example, keeps closing their nuclear plants…they just closed last three recently, AFTER Putler has shown what his plans for Europe are (“we will freeze you, and in order not to survive, you’ll pay me the money I’ll use to kill Ukrainians”). Germans are restarting old coal plants…how’s that better than clean nuclear power?
I do think France is a lot more advanced in this area, maintenance issues notwithstanding. At least they have them (thank you, @Bob).
@ChrisInNY…excellent list. “Climate change”, the other fallacy on par with the CovidCon.
@James N
That’s not a revelation coming from you, another “Chump Fool.”
Rog, incapable of offering anything remotely intelligent and simply resorts to another Ad hominem. As usual, he displays his weakness and ignorance.
Sounds like a great time to visit an empty Spain!
Was planning to visit spain next summer but f that. Plan B is Greece. No A/C there either but at least you have the ocean breeze.
Please do a little more research. Spain uses basically zero Russian gas. Nearly all of their gas comes in by LNG from other countries.
Gas cuts are being forced on Spain form the EU because Germany cannot cut enough. The Spanish are pissed about it and it looks like Spanish has cuts will not happen.
I was going to say, I didn’t think any pipelines went all the way from Russia to Spain. They don’t, they end in Germany and Italy. Any cutbacks are part of general European conservation measures in light of Russian gas cutoffs.
For what it’s worth in this debate, the optimal temperature for restful sleep is 19-20 C (you work out what that is is in obsolete Farenheit).
On a different note, with Spain’s ideal climate for large scale solar power, has it been asleep at the wheel for the last decade when it could have been building solar infrastructure?
The state of South Australia has regular days now when largely roof-top solar generation sends enough electricity back to the grid to power the entire electrical needs of the whole state as well as exporting the surplus to neighboring states! Doesn’t happen every day of course, but it illustrates what is possible.
I have had roof-top solar panels with a Tesla battery for almost 5 years and the initial investment has been paid off, with surplus energy generating modest income from my power retailer. At the moment, after a cold winter, I still have a CREDIT of around $500. Haven’t had a bill at all for over 2 years!
So Spaniards, stop moaning and get cracking!
I live in Wisconsin. In the winter, we set our thermostat to 64F in the daytime and 59F at night. Very comfortable.
The lack of ceiling fans in Europe is a big disadvantage when it comes to dealing with heat, especially in un-air conditioned spaces. That’s a big difference from living in hot Texas.
@Robert – if what you say is true (and I have no reason to doubt it as I’m not aware), will Spain follow UK and do a “Spexit”? Seems like good enough reason…
I hope this breaks apart the EU.
Hmmmm…the usual suspects with your rusted on political and ignorant viewpoints and prejudices.
C’mon folks – look at the following and advocate a rational position. This one dataset blows apart most of the crapola already posted.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1007877/share-of-electricity-generation-in-spain/
Cue the personal abuse from the lettuce, the slug, the intel, the diaper boy and the racist for posting a referenced dataset….