Mallorca - Ecotourism And Sustainability

Costa Rica just got more sustainable. The country's government was able to announce last week that it generates all its electricity needs from renewable sources. This is another feather in the cap for a country that has become almost a byword for sustainability and for the tourism that has latched onto it. Ecotourism - enjoying the nature of the country and its rural communities - is said to be pursued by just under half of the 2.7 million tourists who go there each year.

This is a country that is held up as a benchmark for others to aspire to, but doing so gets others only so far; Mallorca and the Balearics, for instance. Attempting to draw any meaningful comparison is more or less pointless.

The differences are vast. For starters, Costa Rica has a far greater land mass than the Balearic Islands put together. The density of population is roughly one-third of Mallorca's. Tourism accounts for 12.5% of GDP and not the 45% direct contribution in the Balearics. Costa Rica has certain natural advantages that the Balearics do not. Most importantly, where tourism is concerned, it was a late starter. Just as importantly for its eco-credentials, these were driven not by tourism per se but by a desperate need to counteract the negative effects of deforestation.

Here is a country with an estimated five per cent of global biodiversity of flora and fauna. This five per cent contributes to the 70% that is confined to just twelve countries on the planet, of which Costa Rica is one. Spain is not one of them. Nowhere in Europe is. Costa Rica therefore has a natural advantage for those ecotourists interested in flora and fauna. For all that it is spoken about in Mallorca, the island's biodiversity cannot get anywhere near the richness of this tropical country.

Costa Rica is an example of joined-up sustainability. It isn't without its issues, such as those to do with beachfront construction, but overall the sustainability policies have worked, and no more so than with energy. Wind and solar are key elements, and so is geothermic. There are volcanoes, a source that would be denied to the Balearics were there to ever be a serious attempt at using renewables.

Energy is just one part of the sustainability equation. In general terms, ambitions for a more sustainable economy in the Balearics are thwarted by the negligible use of renewable sources. A reason for this underuse is said to be because of geographical isolation and insularity. The Canary Islands likewise have a very high dependence on conventional energy sources. It may be a reason, but it is one that hasn't been explained.

More specifically, sustainable tourism demands less pressure on the environment. One of these pressures comes from conventional energy. For all the talk of sustainable tourism, when there is such an absence of a basic ingredient of sustainable development, much of this talk becomes, so to speak, so much hot air.

A further pressure, the use of land, is determined by the past. Costa Rica's late arrival on the global tourism scene enabled it to learn from others. Mallorca never had anyone to learn from. Things were made up on the hoof, and resorts were consequently made. Deforestation, which can be reversed, is not a Mallorcan issue. The destruction of dunes and coastal ecosystems is and was. For the most part, this cannot be reversed.

The contemporary tourist, we are told, is more demanding of environmental control. This demand leads to environmental marketing on behalf of tour operators, hotels, islands, regions and countries. Eco-credentials are something to be shouted out loud. They are shouted in Mallorca; you can see them on plaques, for example. But how genuinely righteous and virtuous is the tourist?

In Costa Rica, how true is to say around a half of the tourists go solely for the ecotourism? Apart from the remaining half who apparently do not and who are attracted principally by sun and beach, does the eco-half not also take in the beach? The point being that if a country has well-managed and conserved natural areas, then tourists will be attracted. Do they consider themselves ecotourists or simply tourists?

John Swarbrooke of Sheffield Hallam University several years ago coined the term "egotourism". It was applied to those tourists who do wish to display their credentials and they do so by visiting the more exotic, the more unusual, the more "eco" destinations. Costa Rica may no longer be that unusual but it will doubtless still bring in the "ego" variety. By contrast, this ego would not be satisfied by Mallorca's associations with a very different type of tourism.

Which isn't to say that sustainable attempts shouldn't be made in seeking ecotourism. But there has to be a recognition of the mix that a destination has to offer. In Mallorca's case, this will always fundamentally be its beaches and its sun.

The Renewables' Absurdity Of Mallorca

Will Mallorca and the Balearics ever have a significant proportion of the islands' energy needs provided by renewable sources? Here are islands with a great deal of sun and a fair old amount of wind, to say nothing of waves and biomass. Of these, it is the former that should be heading the list of renewables. Should be, but when? Ever?

Depending on which figure you want to take, the percentage of renewable energy production in the Balearics is either around two or three per cent. The difference in the figure is immaterial. Either is pitifully low, and to give an indication as to just how low, one only has to consider a region like La Rioja. Stuck away on the northern mainland, it can manage to supply 80% of its energy needs from renewables. One imagines that this isn't being generated by converting surplus stocks of wine.

The Balearics is not alone in having enormous dependence on conventional sources of energy. The figures can again be quibbled over, but in the Canaries information from those islands' regional government puts renewable supply at around 10% of megawatts in 2011. There are those who would argue that it as low as 5%. Either way, it's more than the Balearics.

Both the Balearics and the Canaries are way behind the national average. La Rioja might be said to skew the figure of 30% green energy, but there again La Rioja isn't a big region. The national thirty per cent is at least ten times more than the Balearics. The situation here, as in the Canaries, is a total absurdity.

Just how absurd this situation is becoming can be determined from arguments surrounding the creation of two giant photovoltaic plants in Mallorca: one in Manacor and the other in Llucmajor. To the fore of the arguments against, almost unbelievably, are environmental pressure groups, such as GOB. It's not as though they are against solar energy - quite the contrary: they are expressing their opposition on the grounds of energy sovereignty. In other words, they don't want private investors reaping fat rewards from investment in plant and the energy companies controlling and charging for the supply. Laudable though this stance might be in seeking to retain control of natural sources of energy and to guarantee its cheap consumption, it isn't particularly realistic. If there were to be true and full energy sovereignty, derived from some form of co-operative mechanism and the public sector, then the chances of there being significant supply between now and climate change apocalypse are probably only slightly better than zero.

To further add to the absurdity, we have the situation being caused by stasis at national government. It is currently an acting government. It is not, therefore, making decisions or starting projects of an important nature, and one of these projects is firmly to do with solar and especially in the Balearics.

The ministry for energy and industry, which just so happens to be combined with tourism and is presided over by the Canaries PP politician, José Manuel Soria (he who has been so wedded to oil exploration off both archipelagos), should by now have set in motion procedures for an auction of solar energy. The government in fact passed a decree commanding this two years. Nothing is happening because the ministry, as with other ministries, is in acting mode, waiting to find out what is going to happen with the next government. This auction is meant to fund a first phase of solar energy production and supply in the Balearics. Because it isn't happening, various photovoltaic projects are on hold. GOB and the others have nothing to fear just at the moment. The 60 million euros investment in the Manacor solar park is on ice along with another 40 million or so euros of investment, included in which is a project to which I have previously referred on more than one occasion: one of around 16 million euros for a photovoltaic plant by the power station in Alcudia (which produces much of the islands' electricity). It would be capable of supplying the equivalent of the total normal population of Alcudia.

The delay in the auction may be considered to be just that: a delay. A new government, especially one with stronger environmental principles than the PP, might be expected to move rapidly towards a renewables policy. But would it and how might it be able to if the likes of GOB have their way in insisting on public sector control? The fear in the Balearics is that the projects currently on hold might not be realised at all, thus dashing ambitions (stated ones) of a minimum 20% renewables supply by 2020. And time to meet those ambitions is rapidly running out.

Sun and wind. You wouldn't think it would be proving to be so difficult. But it is. The 2020 20% is a pipe dream.

The Sun Never Shines On Solar Energy

Between 2006 and 2008, almost 30,000 solar farms were built across Spain. They were the eco-friendly symbols of a renewable-energy policy that made Spain the second largest producer of solar power in the world and they were facilitated by subsidies and the anticipation of spectacular returns on investment. By 2009, police authorities, public prosecutors and investigating judges were reaping their own rewards from Spain's solar boom; they were gainfully employed in pursuing cases of "eco-corruption".

The boom was also fuelled by the issuing of licences to both build the farms and to connect to the grid system. Land where connection points were to be created to dump solar energy into the grid became highly sought after, as was the information as to where these connection points would be. Trafficking in licences resulted as did the trafficking of money; a bent construction industry was able to launder illegal earnings into this new boom market and to look forward to even greater earnings in the process.

At the end of 2010, the Spanish Government stated its intention to attack the so-called "tariff deficit", which is the debt incurred from the cost of running the nation's electricity system relative to revenues from the sale of energy. The government wished to do so in order to be able to cut consumers' energy bills by 2013. In May this year, the tariff deficit stood at 26 billion euros. At the end of 2010, the deficit was said to have been 14.6 billion euros.

An economic fiasco brought about by the apparently benign intention to develop clean, green energy was being forecast even before prosecutors started to dig into corrupt practices by public officials and construction companies eyeing up more than just nice little earners from solar. The Zapatero administration was being fingered for its economically unsustainable but ecologically idealistic policies. Subsidies in the form of the premiums paid for solar-generated electricity outstripped by ten times the payments for conventionally supplied energy. Though the Zapatero government decided to cut revenues earned by photovoltaic plants by 30% at the back end of 2010 (thus delivering a blow to the renewables industry and its own green policy), subsidies did not end. They have continued under the current government.

If government policy was already well under scrutiny before "eco-corruption" reared its ugly head, less attention was paid to the private sector and in particular to the role of the banks. As with other construction projects, the banks started to chuck money around to speculators. Spanish financial institutions are said to be in for some 20 billion euros worth of loans to renewables projects.

The banking system, still attempting to right itself from the fallout of debt toxicity brought about by its zealous funding of the construction boom and by cheap and unsupportable loans, now faces a further potential crisis - that of default by solar companies which will have subsidies slashed. Tackling the tariff deficit is one aim, another is to cut the amount of solar power that is generated - its capacity exceeds demand by 60%.

In the Balearics, there was a scheme by which the regional government was issuing grants of up to 30% of the cost of renewable-energy installations by householders. The period for applications for these grants ended in January last year. By this time, national government was already putting in place plans to tackle the deficit and excess solar capacity, part of which came from householders' own excess energy being sold to producers.

Such sales will now stop. But more than just stop paying householders to help supply the electricity system, these same householders will, under new laws, be obliged to connect solar panels to the grid. Why? In order to tax the use of solar panels. The result will be that it will become more expensive for households to use solar than to take from conventional energy supplies. And if consumers don't hook their panels up, they will be liable to fines running into the millions.

The absurdity of the situation beggars belief. Legal challenges are bound to result and they may include those in the Balearics, where there was the recent incentive scheme which now turns out to be all but worthless. It is a situation that has come about because of the government's desperate need to cut the tariff deficit, one that it, and not consumers, caused and because of governmental idealism that wished to use an energy supply that is available in such abundance. The sun always shines except when the government decrees that it shouldn't. Utter madness.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

No Money In Mallorca's Biomass

The irony is not lost. Mallorca imports waste from Europe and incinerates it at Son Reus. Italy, a country which sends its waste to Mallorca, creates clean energy using woody biomass that is exported from Mallorca.

In January last year I wrote about the potential to use biomass as part of a programme of renewable energy in Mallorca. The Balearic Government was talking about upping its renewables game by investing three million euros (not a huge amount) on renewables installations, an investment in accordance with a national government wish to raise the contribution of renewables to energy sources to 20% by 2020. Biomass was spoken of as one of these sources in Mallorca. Over 11,000 homes could be served by biomass energy, or so it was said.

The forests of Mallorca possess a great deal of biomass. They possess rather less than they did now that parts of the Tramuntana and the Llevant nature park have gone up in flames, but there is still a good deal to go round and to go to Italy.

Various reasons have been given as to why the Tramuntana fire spread as widely as it did. One of these was that the forest is not sufficiently well maintained, which means that the ground is not attended to well enough. It is littered with woody debris, which burns an absolute treat but which burns as a better treat when it is put to productive purpose. 

It is idealistic to believe that a renewable like biomass could be anything more than a small contributor to overall energy sources. It comes at a cost, and one cost is that of its gathering. But this doesn't seem to deter the operation which does gather biomass and which ships it for use in Sardinia where there is an altogether greater premium placed on ecological energy than there is in Mallorca. Indeed, there is an altogether greater commitment to producing clean energy in Italy than in Spain, despite what the government might say. And as the national government has cut support for renewables, then whatever commitment there was has been diminished.

Between them, Mallorca and Menorca exported 7,000 tons of biomass last year. Productive use in the Balearics stands at less than one out of every ten tons of biomass that is retrieved, and there are very few examples of productive use; one is in Sant Antoni in Ibiza. This is not a project operated by Tirme, the GESA-led coalition of companies that has a monopoly on waste management and recycling in Mallorca and which needed the waste imports to help pay for its Son Reus incineration plant. Tirme accept that biomass is highly adaptable as an energy source but that without governmental support, unlike in Italy, its cost is too great; collection and production would outstrip its return. It's not profitable, therefore.

Although the biomass in the mountain forests is a natural resource and one which, through its very nature, is free, it isn't of course free. The Tramuntana fire reminded everyone of the fact that vast areas of the mountains are in fact privately owned. This ownership came up as an issue when the mountain range was awarded its World Heritage status. It was all well and good talking about opening up the mountains to more tourism, but what about rights and permissions to access private land?

Criticisms of the regional government's environment ministry that the lack of forest maintenance contributed to the fire overlook what is a more complicated situation than simply saying that gangs of workers should be packed off into forests in order to clear the debris and the biomass. The complication comes, in part, because of ownership. These owners have, in turn, been criticised for themselves not having looked after their forests, but then what incentives do they have to do better? One could argue that they shouldn't need incentive and that they have a duty to maintain the forests properly, but this is too simplistic a view.

Were there a genuine incentive, i.e. in the form of payment for the biomass, then the forests might at least be in a better state and might be less vulnerable to devastating wildfires, but such payment needs balancing, and, or so it would seem, the use of this biomass is just not profitable.

It seems crazy that there are tons of a potential energy source lying around in Mallorca's forests doing nothing more than being ripe for adding fuel to fires. It seems crazy that, at a time when environmental concerns are being raised about the extension of a different energy source - the gas pipeline to Alcúdia's power station - that a more benign source is being neglected. But this is so often the story with renewables. They have much to offer but they don't make money.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

We Are The World, We Are The Tourists

Today is a good day to be a tourist. If you are, then consider yourself well and truly a part of World Tourism Day. This, dear tourist, is your day. Moreover, this is your day when you also contribute to sustainable energy. You are a tourist in the brave new world of environmental and resource righteousness. Let the words of Ban Ki-moon, the secreatry-general of the UN inspire you: "tourism is especially well placed to promote environmental sustainability, green growth and our struggle against climate change through its relationship with energy". (Oh and if you're wondering about the "secreatry" bit, this is how it is spelt on the World Tourism Day website; never mind, eh.)

What happens on World Tourism Day? Do tourists the world over join hands, form a global human chain and partake in a worldwide karaoke? To borrow from USA For Africa - "We are the world, we are the tourists, we are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving", with the giving being in the form of massive renewable energy subsidies provided by Spain. 

Were there such an international singalong, it would be organised from Maspalomas in Gran Canaria, where this year's World Tourism Day is being staged. And how very apt that it is. The UN's World Tourism Organisation is based in Spain (Madrid to be precise) and Spain is both a force in world tourism and a pioneer in renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaics, "in which we are number one in the world, and wind power, where we are number two".

This quote comes from someone who should know about the relationship between tourism and energy (as the UN secreatry-general has pointed out). They are the welcoming words of Spain's own José Manuel Soria López, the minister of industry, energy and tourism; oh, and the former president of the Canary Islands, to boot. How doubly fortuitous that the minister should be so familiar with the host location of World Tourism Day and be a minister responsible for both energy and tourism, this year's theme. It's almost as if this year's World Tourism Day had been arranged with him in mind.

At a time when Spain is being shown up as a case study in how not to run a modern economy, it is good that José Manuel should be able to cast the country in a more positive light for once (a positive light supplied by renewables of course). However, as I mentioned in January: "The recent history of developing alternative energy sources has been a shambles. A much-heralded national plan for a green economy has backfired spectacularly. It has driven up the cost of energy and has created little or nothing by way of new sources. Indeed, central-government policy has been such that getting on for fifty separate projects for solar energy on the Balearics have been rejected."

But don't just take my word. Try the words of César Molinas, a writer, economist and one-time MD of Merrill Lynch in London, who in a forthcoming book talks about the "renewable energy bubble": "Spain represents two per cent of world GDP yet it is paying 15% of the global total of renewable energy subsidies. This absurd situation, which was sold to the public as a move that would put Spain at the forefront of the fight against climate change, creates lots of fraud and corruption. In order to finance these subsidies, Spanish households and businesses pay the highest electricity rates in all of Europe, which seriously undermines the competitiveness of our economy. Despite these exaggerated prices, the Spanish power system debt is several million euros a year, with an accumulated debt of over 24 billion euros that nobody knows how to pay".*

So, that good is Spain at being a pioneer in renewables, they provide very little and cost an absolute arm and a leg. Still, as it is World Tourism Day, it is reassuring to know that tourists in other parts of the world are benefiting from Spain's renewable energy subsidies ("so let's start giving"). That's something for José Manuel to brag about, though he probably won't.

Of course, he can put it all down to the previous lot if something has gone slightly wrong with the renewables strategy, whilst neglecting to thank them for having put Spain on the path to a green economy (even if it has been an unmitigated disaster).

But, I hear you say, let's not worry about all this, what is there to do on World Tourism Day? Well, you can get into some museums and such like for free and in Playa de Muro there are all sorts of things to do - like beach volleyball, building sandcastles, and tasting wines. All of it energetically sustainable no doubt and all of it in the name of world tourism.

* César Molinas, "What To Do With Spain?", quoted from "El País" (English), 12 September: http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/12/inenglish/1347449744_053124.html


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Hot Air: Environment and energy

For an island where a colossal amount of hot air is generated in variously discussing or debating and defending or destroying the environment, Mallorca does one environmental thing particularly badly. Energy provision. It is getting better and electricity supply from the mainland will help to reduce the reliance on the emissions-spewing power stations such as that of Es Murterar by the Albufera nature park, but in overall terms of clean energy, Mallorca is far from clean. In fact, it is downright dirty.

The salvation can seem obvious. Island. Plenty of sun and sunny days. Plenty of wind. Plenty of water, in the form of waves. Renewables, to give these alternative sources their generic title. Plenty of all of them, but what do they amount to? In all, Mallorca and the Balearics generate just over 1% of electricity from renewables. Yes, the environment creates a lot of hot air but there is precious little by way of hot or cold air created by the environment's natural resources.

The recent history of developing alternative energy sources has been a shambles. A much-heralded national plan for a green economy has backfired spectacularly. It has driven up the cost of energy and has created little or nothing by way of new sources. Indeed, central-government policy has been such that getting on for fifty separate projects for solar energy on the Balearics have been rejected.

In addition, and ironically given that the failure of the green economy plan has caused prices to rise, the goverment's wish to reduce the consumer's burden means that that part of the renewables industry which dedicates itself to what solar supply there is will get 30% less revenue.

A reason for the failure of renewables lies with the cost-benefit equation. A factor, however, in the cost of renewables is that of scale. And to increase scale demands investment, which has meant a half-hearted commitment.

Though the failure has been primarily that of central government, there are local examples of how half-hearted this is. A scheme whereby grants from the regional government for up to 30% of the cost of installation of renewable energy could be applied for by householders has been short-lived and has not been heavily publicised; the period of eligibility for applying ends on 22 January.

The regional government, though, is planning to raise its renewables game. Sort of. In accordance with a national desire for renewables to comprise 20% of energy sources by 2020, there is going to be an investment of three million euros for developing renewables installations in the Balearics. Three million. It doesn't sound like an awful lot. In fact it sounds like distinctly lukewarm air being generated by a government that wishes to show it has something by way of green credentials but not very many.

Despite the lack of commitment, new initiatives for creating alternative energy sources keep popping up. One of these is not the first thing you might think of when it comes to Mallorca and its renewables. Rather than sun, wind or waves, there are also the forests, and forests mean biomass. Over 11,000 homes could be supplied, or so it is being claimed, with biomass energy.

There are different types of biomass. Crops are one, forest residues are another. But harvesting woody material from forests brings its own potential environmental problem, which is one of ensuring that stocks do not become depleted and that the ecology of the forests isn't harmed fundamentally. There is a further problem in the Balearics, and that is that there hasn't been a forest-management plan as such. This was highlighted in connection with the fires last year. A plan is meant to now be established along with investment in forests. To what extent this plan is being drawn up in a joined-up fashion between government departments for the environment and energy in order to guarantee biomass supply is anyone's guess.

The Balearics have a fair old amount of forest and woodland: a third of the land to be more or less precise. Biomass would form only a part of the islands' energy needs, but it may well help in getting somewhere near to that target of 20%. Much would depend, however, on how it was processed and converted. It could, for instance, be mixed with coal at the power stations and so contribute to a reduction in both cost of electricity and of emissions.

Biomass does have potential but like other renewables whether ultimately there is the will to exploit it is another matter. The experience with solar has not been encouraging other than in encouraging a lot of debate but very little action.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.