The denied wind farm in Trujillo qualifies the Board’s criteria as subjective

The promoter of the Alijares wind farm, which received the negative environmental impact statement on Tuesday, assures that with this decision, “not only do the neighbors lose, but the Extremadura of today and of the future.”

In a statement, the Reolum company states that “it is not understood that the same people from the General Directorate of Sustainability approved very controversial projects in protected areas at the time, and in this case, in an area free of environmental restrictions, no a well-designed project that exceeds technical environmental standards.”

Reolum emphasizes that the criteria applied in this DIA, as in the previous one, “would make any initiative in Extremadura of any kind unfeasible, and that if they were applied retroactively they would paralyze the economic activity of the region.”

«With this type of subjective and unprecedented criteria, from the predisposition to reject the project, almost all progress initiatives are unfeasible, whether they are called wind farms, photovoltaic, diamond factory, battery or even the high-speed train to Extremadura » said Yann Dumont, CEO of Reolum.

In addition, the company expresses its surprise because the modifications to the project that have been worked on in recent months with the services themselves have not been considered, which now issue an unfavorable statement. Therefore, it is a decision on a previous version of the project and not on the one that is currently on the table with almost half of the wind turbines that the DGS has considered in its report this Tuesday.

Likewise, the promoter company regrets that the political will of the Junta de Extremadura, expressed on numerous occasions by its president, Guillermo Fernández Vara and the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Sustainability, Olga García, to promote the development of renewable energies, including the wind energy, in Extremadura, clashed head-on with a clearly obstructionist attitude on the part of the technical services of this Community.

Some environmental experts have already pointed out in reference to the DIA of Castillejo that with the application of these restrictive criteria to the point of absurdity, the ZEPA zone would have no limits and would cover the entire territory of Extremadura. This is just one example of the radical nature of the unprecedented approaches of both DIAs that reveal a decision already taken a priori to oppose the projects, twisting the arguments without any desire to improve the projects to make them viable, with the benefit that this implies for Extremadura.

Reolum points out that in their extensive experience as promoters of electricity generation facilities with renewable sources they have never encountered such extreme reasoning, such a manifest will to force the regulations, to paralyze the development of clean energy. “We believe that with this standard applied to the Hybrex project, the services do not protect the natural environment and the heritage of the region, but rather condemn it, unfortunately, to a gradual socioeconomic decline,” say those responsible.

Hybrex represents an innovative action in the socioeconomic field that, with the sum of different initiatives, marks a milestone in the development of renewable energies. In addition to the obligatory guarantees of replacement of the land after the installation phase and the payment of the corresponding rents and taxes (which by themselves multiplied the budgets of the municipalities that were going to host the installations), this project includes the financing of a Plan Integral for the Sierra de Montánchez (essential according to experts); self-consumption facilities that would be managed by the energy communities made up of the neighbors without any outlay; free training plan for neighbors, children and grandchildren, so that they can opt for the jobs that are created in the renewable energy sector; and opening of the company’s capital to residents and companies in the area with shares from €500, an investment guaranteed by the Fundeen platform.

In any case, Reolum will continue to promote renewable facilities, whose need is recognized by international agreements, such as the one in Paris in 2015, and state and regional plans and those of the European Union. In this area, it is worth recalling the Recommendation of the EU Commission of May 18, 2022 on the acceleration of permit granting procedures for renewable energy projects, which details the following: “Member States must ensure that the sacrifice or disturbance of individual specimens of wild birds and species protected under Council Directive 92/43/EEC(12) is not an obstacle to the development of renewable energy projects, by requiring that such projects integrate, as appropriate , mitigation measures […]. If this is done, the accidental killing or disturbance of individual specimens should not be considered deliberate and should therefore not fall within the scope of Article 12(1) of Directive 92/43/EEC and Article 5 of Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(13)’.

In conclusion, Reolum states that “it is a particularly inexplicable decision when seeking a response to high energy prices, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and when it comes to a proposal for clean and cheap energy that respects the environment, in a an area without environmental protection —we insist— with unprecedented local socioeconomic benefits. Unfortunately, it is the region of Montánchez, and by extension the autonomous community of Extremadura, that may lose this opportunity due to the radicalism of a few. In the end the neighbors would lose and the Extremadura of today and of the future would lose.