The UNEF association, which represents the photovoltaic sector, has expressed its rejection of the criteria established by the Urbanisme area of ??the Territory Department to organize the installation of solar plants on the ground. These criteria state as a general rule that the plants may not have a dimension of more than 30 hectares, except for areas defined as “priority implementation” (transformed areas, old extraction areas or abandoned agricultural spaces).
The guidelines have been interpreted as an “unjustified restriction” to this energy source by UNEF. “It seems good to us that there are common urban planning criteria. But we make a very negative assessment of these criteria; We believe that they have no legal basis, since setting a limit would require a law or a decree”, Manuel Romero, UNEF delegate in Catalonia, told this newspaper after speaking in the forum “The pending challenges of solar energy in Catalonia: self-consumption, plants in soil and storage”.
The representatives of these companies feel very disappointed, understanding that the decree for the implementation of renewables approved by the Government (agreed with the sector) and in which this restriction is not contained is distorted. For this reason, they doubt its legality as they do not have the support of the Government or Parliament.
Xavier Rehues, deputy director general of the Government’s Urban Development Coordination, said that the 30 hectares set as the general limit for photovoltaic parks “fits in most of the landscapes of Catalonia” and that this figure “comes out of the experience and the projects that we have evaluated”. However, he specified that the facilities “could have more than 30 hectares, leaving corridors” of 500 meters between them.
As he added, such restrictions “are not normative” but respond to the Government’s decree, which indicates that “a cumulative effect” must be avoided and prevent “the loss of identity of the territory”, although he admitted that it is difficult to objectively assess this latest concept.
The deputy director added that this is also a guideline for municipalities when introducing changes to their urban planning plans. “I don’t know if 30 hectares is a lot or a little, but most of the urban modifications processed by the town halls provide for smaller surfaces, of 5, 7 or 10 hectares,” he said.
Rehues implied that the new criteria would not apply to photovoltaic projects that have already been submitted to public information, but a representative of the public, a spokesman for the BluePROM company, complained that Urbanisme had rejected his project (of 60 hectares). and he asked for a modification when it was already finalized, so it was extraordinarily difficult for him to address the changes after three years of preparation.
Likewise, the director of Unef, José Donoso, assured that photovoltaic plants “if they are done well on the ground and appropriate measures are taken, they are not a threat or a problem but rather an opportunity for biodiversity.” Donoso gave as an example that there are facilities in Extremadura where birds of prey now breed to the point that there is a plant that is being considered to “declare it a protected area.”
Faced with criticism from the sector, the Minister of Climate Action, Teresa Jordà, assured that the country is “catching up after 10 years of flagrant unemployment” in the deployment of renewables. “We are responding to many of the projects and we always do so by making the interest of the territory and above all biodiversity prevail (…), which does not have to be incompatible with photovoltaics, but is often difficult,” said Jordà in statements to ACN.
“In 2022, we closed more than 60,000 self-consumption installations and a capacity of 500 MW in Catalonia. We have worked hand in hand with UNEF to achieve it”, recalled Teresa Jordà, Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda.
On the other hand, the context of rising interest rates will be a “challenge” for the photovoltaic sector, which is “capital-intensive energy, which until now has been an infinite factor and now is beginning to be less,” said Donoso. The general director of Unef has assured that it will be a “challenge” for all recently approved projects to be able to obtain financing, now that it has a higher cost.
Despite everything, UNEF has made a positive assessment of the energy transition in Catalonia. “It seems that after years with a rate of progress lower than that of the rest of the autonomous communities of our country, Catalonia has begun to understand the need to accelerate the energy transition through the implementation of solar energy in our territory”, has remembered Manel Romero. Catalonia currently has 740 MW of installed solar power, which is around 1% of the installed power nationwide.