The Generalitat has definitively shelved the branch of the Very High Voltage line (MAT) between Santa Coloma de Farners and Riudarenes, which ran largely through the Guilleries massif, and has agreed with the Ministry of Ecological Transition on an alternative route close to the Girona airport and the infrastructure corridor formed by the Eix Transversal (C-25) and the high-speed line. Two of the 19 kilometers of the new power lines – those closest to the Girona-Costa Brava aerodrome – will be buried and five will be compacted with other existing power lines.
The infrastructure will reinforce the quality of the electricity supply in the south of the Costa Brava and in the north of the Maresme, will increase the power supply in the AVE railway corridor and will guarantee sufficient electrical power so that the new Blanes desalination plant can operate when it is commissioned. underway, according to the calculations of the Generalitat in 2028. If the deadlines are met, the electrical infrastructure could enter service in 2027.
The new proposal also contemplates that the desalination plant be connected directly to the 220 kV network, a fact that, as explained yesterday by the general director of Environmental Policies and Medi Ambient, Marc Vilahur, will reduce the energy cost to produce desalinated water by half. .
The proposal presented yesterday by the Minister of Climate Action of the Generalitat, David Mascort, to the mayors affected by the new route minimizes the landscape, environmental and social impact on the environment by having an underground section, another compacted section and by having been reduced to less than a third of the impact on natural spaces of the MAT power lines, the name given to the electric highway that transports a minimum of 400,000 volts.
In the proposal included so far in the Government's energy planning for the period 2021-2026 and which the Council of Ministers should repeal in the coming weeks, the 400 kV ran along 17.5 kilometers between Santa Coloma de Farners and Riudarenes and affected the Guilleries massif. In the current proposal there will be only 5 kilometers of MAT line, a section near Santa Coloma de Farners, where there will also be a substation. The rest will be 220 kV.
It is, according to Mascort, a “technically viable” route and although it will have an extra cost compared to the previous route, which was around 20 million, it is not deviated “excessively”.
The Generalitat assures that the project has been agreed upon with all the agents involved such as the Government, Red Eléctrica, Endesa, Adif, affected town councils and the No to MAT platform. The mayor of Santa Coloma de Farners, Carme Salamaña (Junts), described the proposal as “good for the environment and the population that has fought for so many years against the MAT”, although she regretted that the Government had made the announcement at the gates of some elections.
