Barcelona Cartonboard power station is a 46 MW gas power plant in Catalonia, Spain. It is operated by RDM Barcelona Cartonboard SAU. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 52k homes (estimated). It ranks #317 of 899 Spain power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1998, it is around 28 years old — long-established. Its modelled annual emissions are 40,413 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 9.4k cars driven for a year. In context, gas supplies about 21.6% of Spain's electricity; the national grid averages 154 gCO₂/kWh (74.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CT-277.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000400656); fuel: Climate TRACE source-record fuel
At 46 MW, Barcelona Cartonboard power station is below the median gas plant in Spain (54 MW). Technically it is described as CCGT; combined-cycle with a heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG). Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by RDM Barcelona Cartonboard SAU.
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 41.5°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 41% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 33/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
A gas turbine here also runs ~0% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with marine corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #57 largest gas power plant of 95 in Spain by capacity.
Spain has 95 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 32,018 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 41.4642, 1.9557 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Barcelona Cartonboard power station is a 46 MW source-record gas power plant in Catalonia, Spain, commissioned in 1998.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 51,809 homes (estimated).
Barcelona Cartonboard power station is operated by RDM Barcelona Cartonboard SAU.
Barcelona Cartonboard power station has modelled emissions of about 40,413 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
