CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PROBLEM OF ENERGY

Due to the progress of society, the consumption of energy is dramatically increasing. As a consequence of the consumption, the emission of greenhouse gases has also increased exponentially and the effects of its accumulation are causing important environmental variations. In the last two decades, the international community has understood that the utilization of renewable energies is vital to minimize the impact that electricity generation has in the environment. For this reason, the majority of countries in the world have started to install electrical capacity that uses renewable energy to produce power. Spain is a country with a great potential of generating electricity because of the number of hours of sun, the number of rivers and the orography, a cause of important wind flows. In this thesis, the first hypothesis has been to study if Spain would be able to satisfy the whole energy demand of electricity with renewable energies. The result, although impressive, has not been sufficient to rely entirely on renewable resources. A complementary energy source is required. After studying the benefits and drawbacks of fossil fuels, this study has reached a conclusion: nuclear power would be perfect to support renewables. As nuclear plants do not emit carbon dioxide, they are a great solution to avoid emissions and the problem of the climate change.