Those who designed Parc Sagunt II, the industrial park that is already hosting the construction of the future PowerCO battery gigafactory, explain its appearance as if it were a large puzzle of pieces to fit together. Road connections, rail access, proximity to ports… The location, as is already known, weighed heavily in SEAT-Volkswagen’s choice to locate in the Valencian Community.
“In these negotiations to decide on Valencia, there is no doubt that Sagunt, due to its territorial location, is strategic: the industrial estate has connections with the main roads, the A-7 with the north, the A-23 or the N-340; with the port of Sagunt, and now we are going to create an intermodal platform connecting with a railway access where the use of the railway is prioritized,” explained yesterday Teresa Ventura, director of the technical office of Espais Económics Empresarials SL, a company with entirely public capital, 50% owned by the Generalitat Valenciana and SEPIDES (SEPI Desarrollo Empresarial SA, SME).
Ventura was participating in a round table, within the framework of the eMobility Expo World Congress in Valencia, with other key agents to convert Parc Sagunt II into a top-level logistics space. The event was moderated by Mako Mira, regional secretary of Economy.
The speakers, such as Carla Furquet, senior project manager at PowerCO, gave an account of how important the business park project was. The key logistical infrastructures, location, connections and trained human potential were decisive. Furthermore, there is an industrial fabric, a consolidated industrial policy and the Valencian Community is a business friendly community,” declared Furquet.
The next step, in parallel to the work already carried out by the multinational, is to build the intermodal platform with a 24-month execution period, a project declared by the Consell “of general interest for the Valencian Community” to reinforce agility and efficiency in the development of railway facilities, which have to be in step with the rest of the actions in the logistics area.
Ventura gave some details about what Parc Sagunt II will be like, explaining that there are between twenty and thirty expressions of interest only for the intermodal platform and up to three more plots that could be occupied by suppliers. “Many companies are interested in Parc Sagunt II due to the strategic location and the large surface area of ??the plots,” explained the EEE director.
The industrial park will have two bus stations and, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transport Authority and the Sagunt City Council, shuttle bus transportation will be prioritized to facilitate the mobility of users and workers. There will also be 9,000 parking spaces and 190 electric charging facilities such as photovoltaic canopies to “prioritize” renewable energy.
Likewise, as this newspaper reported a few days ago, the Sagunt plant will have a connection with the town’s desalination plant, whose capacity can be increased up to 60% to supply the gigafactory. But also yesterday Teresa Ventura explained that they are working on a “completely innovative” technology such as supplying seawater to cool industrial processes in the battery factory itself.
Also participating in the meeting were Arturo Pastor, deputy director of Eastern Construction at Adif, and Arturo Monfort, head of Infrastructure Planning and Port Development of the Port of Valencia, who explained the railway and maritime connections of the park. With the future intermodal station, they say in the Valencian government, they want to contribute “significantly” to the achievement of a mesh or network transport system that prioritizes intermodality, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability.