The end of an era in Teruel and the beginning of a different future

José Antonio Cappellano Salomone was 15 years old when his family moved to Andorra, a small city in the middle of the Aragon region, in north-western Spain in 1978. His father relocated them when he was hired to work on the construction of the new coal-fired plant, which began in 1974, and stayed to work there once it became operational in 1979. The power plant was fueled by a combination of black lignite from Teruel’s mining basin and imported coal. José Antonio has a photo from that time with his father standing by the plant’s first column during the construction of what would later become Teruel's thermoelectric power plant. Now, more than forty years later, José Antonio is the Supervisor of the plant’s demolition, and he wants to have his picture taken as he tears down the plant’s last column. It’s a way to tell the end of one story but also the beginning of a new one. Over the course of its existence, the 1.1 GW plant produced 224,000 GWh, the equivalent of the energy consumption of the entire Iberian Peninsula for a whole year. After forty years, the age of coal is over for Andorra and the time of renewable energy has begun. In the near future, the area will become a “hybrid” hub, with solar plants, wind farms, battery storage systems and a green hydrogen factory. Agrivoltaics – the cultivation of various species of vegetation on the same land where energy is produced – will be developed there, as well as initiatives to promote tourism, creating new jobs and opportunities for development. Because sustainability is not only about the environment, it’s also about the region’s socio-economic stability. A slow-motion explosion On the morning of May 13, the power plant’s three cooling towers (107 meters tall and weighing 13,000 tons each) disappeared as if by magic, thanks to a controlled explosion that had been meticulously planned in the previous months. In just a second and a half, the explosives that demolished the three towers were detonated sequentially, to reduce ground vibrations and the cloud of debris. The towers were also surrounded by dozens of small water pools, which exploded at the same time as the towers, creating a shield of water to absorb some of the dust. Metal structures wrapped in high-tech fabric and hundreds of bales of hay were also set up to cushion the effects of the collapse. With their distinctive hyperboloid shape, the towers had become the symbol of Aragon: they could be seen from afar along with the 343-meter-tall chimney (which will be demolished by the end of next year). In the late seventies, the power plant represented growth and recovery for the area, turning a poor and underdeveloped province into one of the wealthiest parts of the region, which now has one of the highest per capita incomes in the autonomous community. Selective and sustainable demolition The May 13 explosion – with the towers in Andorra collapsing in slow-motion while workers, authorities, and spectators watched and cheered – was the final moment of months of preparation. It was an example of sustainable decommissioning: dismantling a thermal power plant in a way that minimizes the environmental impact and resource use, while also ensuring workers’ safety and recovering 90% of old materials. But the explosions aren’t over yet. For example, the furnace will be dismantled with another pioneering pyrotechnic operation: the metal structure will be blown up by the end of 2023. Meanwhile, two more thermal power plants are being decommissioned in Spain: Compostilla (in León) and Carboneras (in Almería). The preliminary demolition work in Andorra started in March 2021, after the Spanish government officially closed the power plant in 2019. Over 6,100 tons of materials containing asbestos (located mainly in the towers’ heat exchange areas) were removed and processed as hazardous waste, in full compliance with regulations. Emissions and discharges were monitored constantly to minimize the environmental impact. The work was, and still is, carefully planned down to the last detail. For instance, the lights on top of the towers that alert helicopters and planes of their presence and prevent them from crashing into them used to be mercury lights, but they were replaced with LED lights to avoid soil contamination after they explode. A selective demolition system is being used in Andorra to analyze and separate the 260,000 tons that make up the total volume of all the structures to be dismantled at the plant, which was divided into seven areas. Waste materials will be reused as much as possible for other activities, in line with circular economy principles. And the concrete from the towers won’t end up in a landfill: it will be used to remodel the landscape after the demolitions and fill in underground tunnels. Plaster, bituminous mixtures, uncontaminated earth and rock, heat-resistant linings, sludge containing hazardous substances, calcium residues, ashes and wood containing hazardous substances will be sent to an authorized collection center. Moving towards a new life “Dismantling thermal power plants shouldn’t be seen as the final phase of something; on the contrary, it’s the first step of a new phase,” said Beatriz Muñiz, head of the Enel Group's thermal generation projects in Spain. “There are over 200 of us working on dismantling the power plant in Andorra. You could say that we’ve formed a sort of family that will be bonded together for these five years. That family is made up of the local workforce as well as neighbors who are starting to see the plant’s decommissioning as an opportunity for the present and also for the future, thanks to renewable energy.” It isn’t just the power plant’s decommissioning that should be sustainable, we also need to ensure the area’s sustainability, guaranteeing a future for the people who used to work here and those who live locally. When the coal plant was closed, employees under the age of 56 (around 50 people) were transferred to other power plants owned by the company. For instance, Paulino Guía was a boiler and turbine area supervisor for 16 years; after a reskilling course, he became a supervisor at the wind farms in Borja and Ólvega. Overall, 8,000 hours of training were provided to employees transferring from the various plants being decommissioned. Only one person stayed in the “new” site in Andorra as its Construction Manager. Almost a hundred people over 56 benefited from a deal to resign voluntarily and some of them even went into early retirement. And now? Until 2025, there will be around 200 people (mostly local residents) working on the plant’s dismantling. After that, though, thousands of people will be employed in the construction of new renewable energy plants. It’s an investment plan for the area’s sustainable future that also provides for a just energy transition in which the local community also benefits.

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The end of an era in Teruel and the beginning of a different future

The end of an era in Teruel and the beginning of a different future

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