The government has given the go ahead for a 200 million euro upgrade to the Carboneras power plant, which will create 800 mainly local jobs during the works. It’s believed to be the single largest industrial investment this year in Spain.
The Italian Enel group, which owns Endesa and the Carboneras power plant, wants to bring the dirty ancient polluting monster up to code – actually, it has no choice, as it’s the most polluting power plant in Spain and amongst the worst in Europe according to Greenpeace, and doesn’t comply with EU regulations.
The work will take a year and a half to complete and extend the useful life of the plant by another 20 years. Enel had until the end of 2016 to announce the upgrades or the closure of the plant, as new EU regulations coming into force in 2017 would have meant the plant would have become illegal.
The company has also announced an expansion of the port to increase coal carrying capacity to the plant.
The Carboneras power plant is believed to be why Bédar suffers from high industrial waste pollution.