It is not the best solution, the 182 kilometer high voltage line from Teruel to Baix Llobregat, but it is essential today given the lack of renewable energy projects in Catalonia. This is the majority opinion of businessmen – with nuances – on the project to connect the wind and photovoltaic parks of Teruel with the Barcelona area in a private MAT promoted by Forestalia.
Despite the fact that it is commonly accepted that the generation must be as close as possible to the place where it is consumed, businessmen defend the benefits of the connection with Teruel because they insist that projects are hardly launched in Catalonia. In ten years, the first wind farms to come into operation in the community were Punta Redona and Los Barrancs in the first quarter of this year. "To ensure the country's energy, it is not enough to have plates on the roofs, but we need large parks and this does not seem to be the priority of the Generalitat", reflects Salvador Sedó, from the employer Foment del Treball. "We don't have enough capacity, so we have to bring energy from outside and we need the line".
Why are there not enough renewable energy parks in Catalonia to make the new line unnecessary? "For the NIMBY", answers Joan Vila, from Pimec. This acronym hides the phrase in English "in my backyard, no", which means that, although everyone accepts the development of new renewable energies, no one wants to have mills or plates in their municipality. In Catalonia, neither the town councils nor the Generalitat have promoted enough parks to replace the nuclear power plants that will close in 2030 and that concentrate half of electricity production today.
Given the difficulty of installing solar panels or wind turbines, it does not seem that there should be many supports in the municipalities where the high voltage line will pass or directly at all. That is why the role of the Generalitat is fundamental in authorizing or not the MAT and employers are asking for compensation for the regions where the high voltage line passes. An example is Falset: a municipality with 2,800 inhabitants where there will be around 28 towers. One for every 100 inhabitants. On the other hand, there are many other projects such as the wind turbines in the Empordà area that remain at a standstill.
At the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Pere Alemany points out that they support the MAT, but building it in a different way. The member of the executive committee believes that the designed line is point to point, while the Chamber believes that it should be a facility to dump energy from Catalonia when the parks are built.
The builders of wind energy installations in Catalonia are grouped in the Eoliccat association and obviously bet on parks in the community. "From Eoliccat we have always been in favor of the fact that the energy transition in Catalonia should preferably be based on renewable projects in the country", explains Víctor Cusí, president of Eoliccat. "We have also been persistent in warning that, if we do not move forward with sufficient implementation, we would find that the alternative would be the import of renewable energy from other communities, as in this case Aragon", he adds.
All the business associations consulted remember the warning made by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in 2019 in Barcelona when she warned that the State will not be able to impose generation in Catalonia, but that the Central Government does have the ability to impose the electrical networks.
Alemany affirms that the model proposed by the Chamber is that Catalonia, through its facilities in the Pyrenees to generate electricity, can supplement itself with the renewable generation that arrives from Teruel. He says that up to 17 water pumping stations could be used to raise water to high altitudes with the energy left over to produce electricity when there is no sun or wind.
Vila estimates that a loss of annual GDP value for Catalonia from 2032 of 2,000 million euros due to insufficient renewable generation. "ERC, Commons and the CUP are the parties that make it impossible for renewable generation projects to go ahead", he adds.
