The Valencian Association of Companies in the Renewable Energy Sector (AVAESEN) believes that the decision of the Elx City Council - governed in coalition by PP and Vox - to suspend the granting of urban planning licenses for photovoltaic plants in the municipality "puts development at risk. of 24 projects that would represent around 100 million euros of investment for the municipality of Elche".
Last September, the Elche government team, through the Municipal Strategy Department, announced its intention to draft and approve a new municipal regulation “that makes the installation of renewable energy compatible for its benefits for the environment with the protection of the territory, landscape and heritage of the countryside of Elche", as explained by the mayor of the area, Francisco Soler, which is why the licenses for new photovoltaic plants have been suspended "with the aim of facilitating the study for the reform of urban energy planning renewable on non-developable land".
The employers consider that this decision "can seriously damage the image of a municipality by calling into question legal security" since "other companies and industries could consider investing in municipalities that do not offer minimum safeguard guarantees, and even more so in the case of something as sensitive and capital for Europe as investment in renewable energies”, in the opinion of the General Director of AVAESEN, Pedro Fresco.
Fresco, who held the position of General Director of Ecological Transition of the Generalitat Valenciana until his dismissal last December, adds that "if the city council wants to consider the suspension of licenses to organize its municipal plan, it could do so for new projects that are still have not requested or obtained urban compatibility. But doing so for projects in the pipeline is a legal time bomb with unpredictable and incalculable consequences.”
As a result of this suspension of licenses, the employers estimate that they will stop investing around 100 million euros in the town of Elche in the coming years and that the impact on employment will also be considerable, since it would stop creating 500 jobs. direct jobs during the construction period of these plants and several dozen more permanent positions during the estimated 30 years of operation period of the plants.
Furthermore, they say in a statement, "the 24 photovoltaic projects in the pipeline generate another direct economic impact, that of leasing the land for three decades, and this retroactive suspension may cause those existing leases to be canceled." AVAESEN estimates that the damage that this cancellation will cause to the owners of the land in Elx will be approximately 24 million euros over 30 years.
Finally, the businessmen warn that the local council may face legal and property responsibilities for the suspension of construction licenses for photovoltaic projects since, in addition to the promoters of the affected plants, "the owners of the land could sue for damages" to the City Council of Elx.
Fresco recalls that “we must not forget that the CNMC has already warned that the installation of renewable energies is an activity subject to the Market Unity Guarantee Law and that limitations of this type represent a restriction on the exercise of this activity. Only compelling reasons of general interest would justify limitations of this type, which should also justify the necessity, proportionality and the absence of less restrictive alternatives.”
In his opinion, “it is evident that a generalized suspension of licenses that applies to a multitude of small photovoltaic plants in a municipality of almost 33,000 hectares is neither proportional nor justified, much less when environmental protection cannot be invoked by having “Many of these plants have received positive environmental reports.”
A good number of the photovoltaic solar plants processed in Elx have all the favorable reports, in the absence of the urban planning license, which in the opinion of Pedro Fresco “makes the decision of the Government of Elx irresponsible no matter how you look at it. Not because of the economic loss for the Valencian Community, but also because of the hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 emissions that could be avoided being emitted into the atmosphere with the construction of the planned plants, something that distances us from the energy generation objectives. renewable energy of the Valencian Community".
