The Generalitat rejects a wind project for landscape reasons for the first time

BarcelonaThe Generalitat de Catalunya has issued an unfavorable environmental impact statement (EIS) for a wind power project due to landscape reasons. It is the first time that this reason has caused a renewable energy project to be rejected. Specifically, the resolution affects the four wind turbines of Pla de la Tallada, in the Baix Empordà region, with a combined power of 22.8 MW. “It is an arbitrary decision. The project has passed the assessment of all objective environmental impacts and is falling because someone considers that it alters a scenic backdrop. The message that the sector receives is that no project is safe, no matter how well processed it may be,” stated Víctor Cusí, president of EolicCat, the association that represents the wind sector in Catalonia.

As the organization explains, the only reason justifying the rejection is the assessment of the Territorial Urban Planning Commission of Girona regarding what the resolution calls “the impacts it will generate on the scenic backdrop of Montgrí”. "The project complies with the objective urban planning criteria indicated by the department itself," assures EolicCat in a statement, adding that "the resolution does not only affect wind energy: it introduces a factor of legal uncertainty across the entire portfolio of renewable projects in Catalonia".

The Plater, "deauthorized"

The association that represents the wind energy sector in Catalonia asserts that the decision "contradicts" the Sectoral Territorial Plan for the Implementation of Renewable Energies (Plater), which the Generalitat itself has developed to identify suitable locations based on environmental, territorial, and landscape criteria: "If an area deemed suitable according to the Plater does not allow for the installation of four wind turbines, the country's renewable planning loses all its practical value. Baix Empordà is assigned 568.7 MW of wind power for 2050".

Since the Generalitat de Catalunya established urgent measures to address the climate emergency and accelerate the implementation of renewable energies, as explained by EolicCat, the Girona regions have not incorporated any wind farms and continue to have no operational wind power. The Plater projects 2,649 MW of onshore wind power for the territory by 2050, of which 1,968.7 MW correspond to Alt and Baix Empordà, within the 23,136 MW that the Proencat 2050 sets for the whole of Catalonia.

"That the Girona regions continue without a single wind turbine and that the Generalitat rejects the few projects that reach them is an inadmissible territorial grievance", denounces Víctor Cusí, who adds that "there are regions, such as Terra Alta, Ribera d'Ebre, Conca de Barberà, and Segarra, that have been assuming wind farms, solar plants, and transmission lines for years to produce the energy consumed by the entire country, including Girona".