Once again, the environmental issue strains the consensus around a strategic project in the Valencian Community. After the contrary positions in renewables and in the expansion of the port of Valencia, it is now the turn of the photovoltaic plant attached to the SEAT-Volkswagen battery plant in Sagunt.
Yesterday the local Government Board of the City Council of this town approved transferring to the Ministry of Ecological Transition a technical report from the municipal Urban Planning area on the Strategic Territorial Project (PTE) of the Parc Sagunt II gigafactory which, although it gives the go-ahead to the installation of the factory, is unfavorable to the photovoltaic plant associated with the project.
According to Europa Press, the report is signed by a municipal technician and the Town Planning councilor himself, Josep Francesc Fernández Carrasco, the latter from the Compromís coalition. From the City Council, whose mayor is the socialist Darío Moreno, they remarked yesterday in statements to EP that "the position has been established by the Urban Planning department" according to technical criteria, but they clarify that it is not the joint position of the Local Government Board .
They allege that with its approval it only "acknowledges the existence" of the document and transfers it to the Ministry so that it "takes into account" their observations, but does not express its own position. Both the PSPV, with five members, and Compromís, which has three councillors, and Esquerra Unida del País Valencià, which adds one, form part of the Local Government Board of the Sagunt City Council.
For its part, the EUPV group - which is part of the local government together with PSPV and Compromís - has also shown its support for the gigafactory but has warned of the "enormous impact" of the photovoltaic installation, which "does not contribute anything positive" and "It means the destruction of almost four million square meters of land classified as of high agrological value and also in production," he criticized in a statement.
EUPV has stressed that the installation "is not a condition of the PERTE funds", "represents a minimum part of the total energy consumption necessary for the gigafactory" and is "absolutely unnecessary" within the project because "it only contributes negative impacts on the territory". For this reason, they will ask the Valencian Government to take "the appropriate measures" to guarantee the installation of this "industrial project that is so positive for our city without the installation of the macro photovoltaic plant", the formation said yesterday as the agencies collect.
The General Directorate of Territorial Policy and Landscape began the prior public consultation on November 10, within the obligations set out in the Territory, Urban Planning and Landscape Law (TRLOTUP). The contribution period ends next Monday, December 12 and the contributions must be sent. The contributions will be sent by email to Territorial Planning.
In the PTE report prepared by the General Directorate for Territorial and Landscape Policy, it is contemplated that the factory's energy supply will be through renewable energy of photovoltaic origin, to guarantee an energy supply of 240 GWh/year, with Iberdrola España, S.A., being the company designated for the implementation, ownership and management of several photovoltaic plants in the vicinity of the gigafactory
In addition, the request for the inclusion of photovoltaic plants, whose areas are located to the north of the Palancia River and to the west of Parc Sagunt II, broaden the relationship of the projects with the regional green infrastructure, in particular it is necessary to take into account the proximity to the territorial corridor, defined in the ETCV, between the Palancia River and the Marjal de Almenara, whose southern part is located in the municipality of Sagunt. This is "an ecological and territorial connection that must be strengthened in the broader context of the action", points out the PTE.
