Is there a nuclear power plant on Tenerife?

No, the Canary Islands have no nuclear plants. All seven of Spain's reactors stand on the mainland.

Do I need to do anything as a visitor to Tenerife because of the IEA recommendation?

No. The recommendation is addressed to the Spanish government and contains no new rule, price or deadline.

What is Almaraz and how long will it keep running?

Almaraz is a nuclear plant with two reactors in Extremadura. According to the government, it may run until 8 June 2030, instead of the original 2027 and 2028.

When is Spain's nuclear phase-out planned?

The timetable closes the seven reactors between 2027 and 2035. The ministry stresses that the Almaraz extension does not change the 2035 end date.

Did the April 2025 blackout hit the Canary Islands?

No, the Canary Islands' grid is separate from the mainland and was untouched on 28 April 2025. Tenerife did suffer its own total blackouts, the latest in July 2020.

Tenerife: IEA nuclear advice and the island grid

What changes for visitors and residents in southern Tenerife?

Nothing changes for visitors or residents in southern Tenerife. The IEA handed Spain's government a recommendation on Thursday 5 November 2026, not a new regulation.

The report names no prices, deadlines or applications for households or visitors. The Canary Islands have no nuclear plants, and their island grids are not linked to the mainland.

When the Iberian Peninsula went dark on 28 April 2025, the islands' grid was untouched. Visitors and residents need to do nothing, and no official advice to the public on this subject is known.

What exactly does the IEA recommend to the Spanish government?

The IEA, based in Paris, wants each reactor closure weighed on its own instead of following a fixed timetable to 2035. It asks for a transparent legal framework that tests costs and benefits before reactors leave the grid for good.

Nuclear plants supply about a fifth of Spain's electricity with no direct emissions, according to the report. Without large storage such as pumped-storage plants and industrial batteries, gas plants would have to step in at night.

The IEA believes that would eat up part of the gas savings made by solar and wind power. The report does not say which reactors it would keep or switch off.

What figures does the IEA give for Spain's electricity mix?

Renewables rose from 35% of Spain's electricity generation in 2015 to 56% in 2025, says the IEA. Emissions from the power sector fell by about a fifth as a result.

Solar and wind power kept gas imports for electricity from rising by 40% in 2024, says the IEA. That would have meant about 23 billion euros in extra costs.

Even so, Spain imports almost 70% of all its energy. Electrification stands at 25% of final consumption, and the official target for 2030 is 35%.

The IEA praises the scrapping of the 7% tax on power generation in 2026. It also calls for a tariff reform, so households and industry feel the benefits of clean power directly.

Who decides on Almaraz and the nuclear phase-out?

The nuclear regulator CSN backed an extension for Almaraz in July 2026, and its opinion is binding. Only then does the Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica (MITECO), Spain's ecological transition ministry, grant the operating licence.

Order TED/864/2026 of 12 August 2026 renews the licence for both reactors at the plant in Extremadura. Reactor I may run 31 months longer, reactor II 19 months.

According to the government, Almaraz now runs until 8 June 2030, instead of November 2027 and October 2028. The plant supplies over 7% of Spain's electricity and employs about 4,000 people in Extremadura.

The ministry calls the extension “limited and situational” and promises no extra costs for citizens. It said the 2035 end date for all seven reactors remains unchanged.

The operators Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy agreed the timetable with the state waste company Enresa. It sets out Almaraz I in 2027, Almaraz II in 2028, Ascó I in 2029, Cofrentes in 2030, Ascó II in 2033, Vandellós II in 2034 and Trillo in 2035.

Why does the issue still matter to the Canary Islands?

The blackout of 28 April 2025 reignited the nuclear debate in Spain. The IEA said afterwards that the incident offered a chance to review security of supply and the resilience of grids.

The islands know blackouts first-hand: since 2009, the Canary Islands have had seven total island blackouts, five of them on Tenerife. In July 2020 about 950,000 people sat without power for more than seven hours.

In September 2019 a fault at the Granadilla power station caused a nine-hour outage. On 1 July 2025, MITECO and the Canarian government announced a reinforcement programme.

By 2028 it aims to add 1,361 megawatts of power available at any time on the island grids. More than 700 million euros of EU recovery money funds it.

The plan earmarks 250 megawatts for emergency generators, and Red Eléctrica called for 50 megawatts of extra emergency capacity. The Canarian government is processing two emergency plants on Tenerife.

The undersea cable between Tenerife and La Gomera went into service on 6 February 2026. It is about 36 kilometres long, reaches a depth of 1,145 metres and links the Chío and El Palmar substations.

What is still open and what happens next?

Our research could not view the text of the IEA report, so its title and exact wording are unconfirmed. The Spanish government's reaction to the recommendation is not available either.

Nobody has named a date for a decision so far, and the next known milestone is the shutdown of Almaraz in June 2030. Who pays for the emergency measures on the islands is only partly settled.