This coming Tuesday (August 9), the Spanish government's emergency plan for energy savings will come into force. The minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, will meet representatives of regional governments on Tuesday to go over measures that were approved by the cabinet last Monday. The aim is to save up to 25% energy.
The measure that has attracted most attention and generated greatest controversy concerns air-conditioning - a minimum of 27 degrees in public buildings, in the likes of shops and on public transport. However, the minister is saying that the decree passed earlier this week "should be applied with flexibility". The government has already demonstrated this. In the face of protest from the hospitality sector, the minimum for bars and restaurants will be 25 degrees.
Public institutions in Mallorca have already adopted certain measures and issued instructions regarding the switching-off of lights and air-conditioning. For businesses, the Tuesday meeting should give a clearer indication as to what flexibility there is, Ribera having acknowledged that "discos, kitchens and gyms (for example) require temperatures different to those of a book shop".
Another measure concerns automatic doors for shops. It is reckoned that savings of some 20% can be made by allowing doors to close and not having them permanently open. But there is a particular issue for shops that don't have automatic doors, which ones will have to install them and how much this will cost.
The president in the Balearics of the Arimpa association of businesses that install and maintain these doors, Rafel Sotomayor, says that doors require "significant investment" but that "tangible savings" can be made. Financial assistance is being promised, but it has yet to be quantified. Sotomayor, meanwhile, suggests that his association's members are prepared to meet the demand for installation.