Photo-voltaic cells produce electricity, but not at a constant rate. At night zero, in the morning a bit, at noon a lot, etc. So unless you want to keep a regular power generator as backup, you need to hook yourself to a larger grid. If France doesn't want cables from Spain, I can imagine Spain won't put a lot of effort in new projects.
Now the hard part about solar energy powering the world is not the technical part. It's politics. Morocco is relatively stable, but most countries around the equator are not (unfortunately). And I can imagine that if the western economies (where the money is) would need to fund the projects in the southern countries (where the sun is), they'd want some guarantees.
You remember the political mayhem of a few years back that jumped from country to country, tumbling over dictators, upsetting tourism and to this date killing people in Syria?
This article is about CSP which can provide power during the night. So your point about PV is valid but hopefully will be less relevant in the future.
And really when I said south I was hoping that they could just put more solar systems in Spain for feeding power up to the UK. The African connection is good but as you say politically a problem.
In short the EU should be doing better within it's own borders
> In short the EU should be doing better within it's own borders
I agree. It's not terribly surprising that some countries are nitpicking though: the solar industry is young, small and relatively poor. The nuclear industry is established, big and relatively rich. These industries are direct competitors in a heavily regulated environment, the sort of market where entrenched players are at natural advantage.
Photo-voltaic cells produce electricity, but not at a constant rate. At night zero, in the morning a bit, at noon a lot, etc. So unless you want to keep a regular power generator as backup, you need to hook yourself to a larger grid. If France doesn't want cables from Spain, I can imagine Spain won't put a lot of effort in new projects.
Now the hard part about solar energy powering the world is not the technical part. It's politics. Morocco is relatively stable, but most countries around the equator are not (unfortunately). And I can imagine that if the western economies (where the money is) would need to fund the projects in the southern countries (where the sun is), they'd want some guarantees. You remember the political mayhem of a few years back that jumped from country to country, tumbling over dictators, upsetting tourism and to this date killing people in Syria?