LONDON (Reuters) – Spanish power firm Iberdrola will decommission its last two coal plants in 2020 and replace their output with wind and solar projects, the company said on Monday.
It made the announcement as negotiators from almost 200 countries meet in Madrid from Dec. 2-13 to thrash out details of how to implement the landmark Paris climate agreement and ramp up cuts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
Iberdrola has been closing coal and fuel oil power plants globally over the past 15 years as it shifts focus to low-carbon renewable power production and its energy networks business.
The Lada and Velilla plants in Spain are its only remaining coal plants.
Iberdrola said the closures would not affect local jobs.
“100% of the existing workforce will be relocated, part of it in other renewable energy facilities and the rest to undertake the decommissioning works,” it said in a statement.
The landscape surrounding the sites of the coal plants will be restored and around 500 megawatts of wind and solar projects will be built in the regions, it said.
