Buenas practicas

I've been traveling across Spain twice in the last month. I thought I'd share four examples of good practice I ran into.

The first shot, above, is amazing: all in the same frame you can see three sources of renewable energy, from left to right: an electricity-generating windmill, a thermal solar water heating device, and photovoltaic panels producing solar electricity. All in one shot!

The second one deserves an applaud: a bar and restaurant on the road between Albacete and Madrid in which the Anti-Tobacco Law of 2005 is implemented rigorously (in most Spanish bars and restaurants, it is at best implemented loosely, and often completely ignored pursuant to a shameful campaign by the opposition party which controls a number of regional governments). Today, Prime Minister Zapatero announced that he was appointing as Vice-Prime Minister encharged of economic affairs, Elena Salgado, who had promoted the Anti-Tobacco Law of 2005 when she was Health Minister. Let's hope that she will now use her power to establish fiscal incentives and penalties for the enforcement of the Anti-Tobacco Law.

The third photo has become so common that people pay hardly attention: Energy-generating windmills are common place all accross the country. Last year for the first time, there were peaks during which wind was the largest source of electricity; this winter more than one third of Spain's electricity came from wind. Contrary to old school conventional belief, Spain does not import nuclear power from France: they send wind-generated elecricity to the neighbouring country, across the Pyrennees.

My fourth and last photo, which I took this morning in Madrid, is very cool: The brand new generation of urban buses in Madrid incorporates baby seats. Let's hope the vandals don't damage them...