Monday, April 01, 2013

That’s a blow

As I have reported, there is a court case underway against the ex-mayor of Bigastro for allowing Eurener to start building a solar farm on protected land at La Pedrera. Now it seems that Iberdrola are looking at the same area and others beyond to develop wind farms.

As those who live here are aware, we have been exposed to an increased amount of wind this winter - apparently today we could face strong gusts again as the area is on yellow alert. This phenomena has not escaped the attention of the electricity companies who are keen to take advantage of the potential to generate electricity. Judging by the strength of the wind this year, we could be talking megawatts of power!

The attempt by Sr Moya and his relation’s company was bodged because they failed to complete the necessary reports and did not wait for permission from Valencia, Iberdrola will not make the same mistake. In fact there are already meetings scheduled to be held in the Auditorium (dates and times to be announced) to outline the plans and to gather public opinion. These will be mostly in Spanish although Iberdrola have promised at least one meeting to be in English because of the number of British residents in the area. An environmental impact study has already been undertaken which showed minimum disturbance will be made by the installations.

Wind farms are not the most attractive feature in the landscape though and their presence may well devalue our houses even further. On the plus side, Iberdrola have promised to subsidise the bills of those living in the area by up to 15% but only for clients on the “Verde” (green electricity) tariff.

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