Secondary Sector: Industry, Energy, and Economic Development
The secondary sector encompasses activities that involve the processing of food and raw materials through various, more productive processes. This sector typically includes steel, construction, mechanical engineering, chemistry, textiles, the production of consumer goods, computer hardware, and more.
Industry
Industry is the set of processes and activities aimed at transforming raw materials into processed products in bulk. To function, industry requires raw materials, machinery, and equipment.
Energy
Energy is the ability to produce work or set something in motion.
Thermal Power Plant
A thermal power plant is a facility used to generate electricity from the energy released as heat, usually by burning fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, or coal. This heat is used in a thermodynamic cycle to move a conventional alternator and produce electricity. This type of electrical generation is polluting, as it releases carbon dioxide.
Heavy Industry
Heavy industry involves the extraction and processing of primary raw materials, such as mineral ore used in steel and petroleum, and the manufacturing of the machinery needed for these purposes. Within heavy industry, distinct sectors include metallurgy, petroleum chemistry, and extractive industries.
Light Industry
Light industry focuses on the use and manufacture of goods for personal consumption. It utilizes raw materials and intermediate products. Although the food industry handles large quantities of products, the destination of these goods is the retail market. Examples include food, textiles, furniture, fine chemicals, and electrical appliances.
Industrial Team
The industrial team produces the infrastructure and assets necessary as a basis for the development of different economic sectors. There are two major sectors: construction industries and metallurgical processing.
Economic Development in Spain
INI (Instituto Nacional de Industria)
INI (National Institute of Industry) was a state entity created by Spaniard Juan Antonio Suanzes to promote industrial development in Spain. It was established during the Francoist autarky period (1939-1959) through a 1941 law, inspired by General Franco himself. Its aim was to promote the creation of new industrial enterprises and actively foster the nation’s development within an autarkic economic vision.
SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales)
SEPI (State Society for Industrial Participation) is a Spanish entity created in 1996 to replace the National Institute of Industry (INI) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It is responsible for the administration of public enterprises and corporations.
Retraining
Retraining involved the dismantling of much of the obsolete heavy industry that had been built since the autarky of the early Franco years around INI. This industry was concentrated in certain areas with a more sensitive and less diversified industrial structure.
Reindustrialization
Reindustrialization was a process initiated in 1984 aimed at modernizing older plants, adopting new technologies, and making them more productive.
ZUR (Zona de Urgente Reindustrialización)
ZUR (Urgent Reindustrialization Zone) refers to areas affected by industrial restructuring that have received financial assistance to remain non-industrial regions.
Industrial Processes and Innovation
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is the art of processing iron ore to obtain different types of iron or alloys. The transformation process begins with the extraction of iron ore from mines.
Industrial Estate
An industrial estate is a territorial space where a number of industrial activities, which may or may not be related, are grouped together. They typically share a set of common services.
Technology Park
A technology park is a high-quality location for the establishment of SMEs and large corporations that are innovative and environmentally friendly. These parks are dedicated to production, advanced services, and research and development (R&D). They often promote R&D through research projects, development, and innovation. Municipalities often provide industrial land for the placement of these technology parks to serve high-tech companies.
R&D
R&D stands for Research and Development. Any innovation process involves an associated research and development process. R&D is broken down into three classes: Basic Research, Applied Research, and Technological Development.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.