The Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica approved this Tuesday the environmental impact statement (DIA) of a photovoltaic macroplant of 352.79 hectares in the Castellon towns of Vall d'Uixó, Xilxes and Moncofa, with an estimated useful life of 45 years and a overhead power line for evacuation along six municipalities in the province.
The project, by Arada Solar, did not have the approval of the previous Council, which issued two unfavorable reports, one from Territory and Landscape and the other from Green Infrastructure. In this context, the current Ministry of the Environment is reviewing the documentation of the public exposure phase and allegations of this photovoltaic solar project.
Meanwhile, the project received harsh criticism yesterday from La Unió Llauradora i Ramadera, which defends that the future plant destroys agricultural areas, with the consequent damage to farmers. "They have made, together with the Administrations, a significant investment in their fields for the modernization of irrigation and now they will see how that effort is called into question," he stated yesterday in a statement.
“They want to impose large photovoltaic projects on us without any kind of rationality when energy production should be brought closer to large urban and industrial areas of consumption, with the aim of avoiding losses and the impact of energy transport over long distances through the evacuation routes that also affect areas of rural activities of interest for kilometers ”, assures Carles Peris, general secretary of La Unió.
In response, the Environment explains that the Generalitat Valenciana will defend "the territorial, environmental and landscape interests of the Valencian Community and the affected municipalities", they emphasize that they will do so in accordance with the instruments "legally authorized for this purpose", within the procedure which is processed by the Ministry. For the new Council, going hand in hand with the municipalities in these cases is essential, insist from the department headed by Salomé Pradas (PP), also from Castellón.
While the Valencian government studies what position to adopt in this project, Compromís is already asking it for a position and will take a proposal to the plenary session of the Castellón Provincial Council to demand that the Consell "submit appeals or take the appropriate legal measures before the projects authorized by Madrid in against the criteria of the Generalitat". They ask you to take the necessary steps to legally challenge state authorizations that have been or will be granted for projects with negative reports.
In this sense, the Valencian formation -which previously directed environmental policies at the Botànic- asks for the same attitude that the previous Consell maintained with La Magda, a project whose processing was approved in February 2023 in the BOE with strong opposition in the territory . At that time, the Valencian government even sent a letter to the ministry headed, now in office, by Teresa Ribera, in which it reproached the DIA for approving this mega-park that affects the towns of Benlloc and Les Coves de Vinromà.
In the background is the dichotomy raised by La Unió and by other groups, which ask for less permissiveness with the installation of megaprojects in the interior. It is one of the arguments put on the table, once again, by the agricultural association, which demands "maximum social unity in the face of all these speculative and plundering projects that affect the inhabitants and the livelihood of many families" and that It threatens, even with acts of protest.However, the upcoming meetings with farmers, Town Halls, political parties and affected associations will define the strategy to be followed in a new energy project that is tensing the Valencian interior.
