[maartenscholl]

This is an interesting point about energy market balancing but it has causality backwards. Spain simply has a better energy mix than Germany, no matter how big the spread between the countries is as a function of interconnectedness.

[jauntywundrkind]

Spain also has pretty sensible legislation that is somewhat green. For large public areas the lowest allowed AC setting is 27°C / 81°F. Where-as in America you'll go to a mall and it'll be 65°F. https://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/spain-limits-air-c...

Probably doesn't make a ton of difference. But I found that very respectable. It made me hopeful they have other basic green sensibilities.

[ahartmetz]

That is very sensible of Spain. I find that 27°C + the dehumidifying effect of AC is exactly the comfort temperature when wearing hot weather appropriate clothes. American polar breeze AC settings seem completely insane to me.

[outime]

It will make a real difference if you're at the gym or in a very crowded place though.

[Teever]

Wouldn't the AC system adapt to the increased heat production from the extra people and maintain the temperature at 27'C?

[ahartmetz]

The AC's temperature sensors won't feel your microclimate or body temperature. I'm all for 27°C in the general case, but yeah I'd prefer a few degrees lower in the gym or in a dense crowd.

[koolba]

> Spain also has pretty sensible legislation that is somewhat green. For large public areas the lowest allowed AC setting is 27°C / 81°F.

As a red blooded American, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen all weekend.

[mixmastamyk]

Sounds good to me. One thing I hate in the summer is being dressed in shorts and t-shirt then going inside and freezing because the AC is on full blast.

[ahartmetz]

You should try it, I find it rather pleasant. When I was in an office with per-room AC settings, I liked 27°C (shorts or light pants + T-shirt or short-sleeved shirt). When I was in Asia, I noticed that the setting was commonly 27°C. It seems to be only North America where "let's show nature who's boss" AC settings are common.

[steveBK123]

Maybe, but most people I know who set their summer thermostat super high like 81F also do the same in winter.. so its just hot vs cold preference.

Find me someone running 81F in summer and 59F in winter and I'll applaud their eco-consciousness.

[tormeh]

27 is really bad when it's constant. I lived like this for long periods of time (top floor + evening sun) and it's exhausting. 25 is fine.

[ahartmetz]

27 with air conditioning is different. It's less humid and usually the air is also noticeably moving.

[alamortsubite]

Even within the U.S., there's a correlation between obesity and climate control preferences. Spain's obesity rate is half ours.

[leonidasrup]

Let's not forget that Spain has better theoretical PV potential.

"Global horizontal irradiation (GHI, measured in kWh/m /day), the long-term amount of solar resource available on a horizontal surface on Earth."

German average 2.978 kWh/m2

Spain average 4.575 kWh/m2

https://globalsolaratlas.info/global-pv-potential-study

[hunterpayne]

The article is a mix of facts and figures on the supply side. However, the real reason for the current cheap prices is the lack of demand. Spain's economy isn't doing well and they have hurt their tourism industry with politics. That's most of the reason for the temporarily cheap power that they mostly import from their neighbor. Being dishonest about their energy policy is pure politics.

[tzs]

How have they hurt tourism? According to the data here [1] tourism has been going up every year since 1996 except for a moderate hit during the 2008 recession and a big hit during COVID.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Spain

[cheema33]

> Spain's economy isn't doing well and they have hurt their tourism industry with politics.

I don't live in Spain. And this is the first I have heard about their politics keeping tourists away. Can you elaborate?

[troad]

There have been protests against tourism in Spanish cities, esp. Barcelona.

As always, the protests are really about local issues (lack of housing, jobs, etc) and foreigners are being scapegoated. A lot of this has a dark edge - e.g. locals spraying water on people that appear foreign to them. The framing around sustainability and 'over-tourism' allows the far left to get in on the xenophobia that's been so useful to the far right. Much easier to attack foreigners than actually come up with solutions to deliver more housing or jobs.

Media narratives aside, these incidents have not affected tourism at all. Spain is and continues to be a massive tourism destination, and the average tourist has never even heard of any of this.

[randochatter]

You should correct this article, they don't know Spain's tourism is in shambles either. https://apnews.com/article/spain-record-foreign-tourists-5aa...

[throwaway_2626]

Spain's energy policy could easily be improved, but saying that Spain's economy isn't doing well is disingenuous. In terms of GDP, it's one of the countries with the fastest growth in the EU [1].

Also, our economy is becoming more diversified, precisely thanks to lower energy prices that attract industries that previously gravitated towards Germany and Eastern Europe. [2]

I'm curious about how politics have hurt tourism industry, though, if you could elaborate.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-euro-indicators/w... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/stellantis-chinas-leapmo...

[zdragnar]

It's easy to win the fastest growing award when it has been doing so poorly before. Youth unemployment is at a near twenty year low of 24%, down from recent years around 30%.

As for politics hurting tourism, there's some formal policies restricting airbnbs and placing higher tourism related taxes on over-encumbered areas, but I think most of the detraction is the anti-tourism protests from locals, which were quite large in 2024-2025. You'd have to consider local sentiment as "politics" for the statement to really be true, I think.

[BonitaPersona]

The GDP is growing simply because the population is growing massively. This is such a low-quality measurement driven by government propaganda. Quality of life, GDP per capita, and plenty of other measurements are needed to actually evaluate how an economy is going.

And Spain's economy is far, very far away from "going like a rocket", like your misinformation echo-chamber tries to parrot.

[tpm]

> The GDP is growing simply because the population is growing massively.

Per capita GDP is growing too, so this is simply wrong.