A group of residents from Castalla Internacional, an urbanization in the municipality of Castalla, Alicante province, has taken up the gauntlet in the fight against ACS, a Madrid superpower that carries out many large infrastructure projects in Spain.
Through a feasibility study carried out by Grupo Cobra, a research agency affiliated with ACS, various projects have been created and presented for approval throughout the country, in particular the province of Alicante.
Submissions have been made to various authorities in order to plan the construction of several mega-large photovoltaic installations (Photo Voltaic Plates)
Residents in the area have been informed about the “FV Castalla” project purely by chance and have learned that their residential area with hundreds of families will be almost completely surrounded by a sea of solar panels.
The project covers an area 7 times larger than the urbanization itself, 322 hectares or 3,220,000 m2! Residents have never officially been informed of such plans by any of the organisations concerned and it now appears that there are only a few weeks left to reach a full formal objection to the plans.
The impact of such a large facility on the enjoyment of life on, the environment, nature, the history of the region, the local microclimate, and tourism will be enormous and irreversible.
The inhabitants, like the majority in this country, are convinced that the solar energy generated by solar panels either through “self-consumption” or through community projects and also through large fields with solar panels is necessary to save our future.
But now under the pretext of “Spain must comply with the requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and less dependent on its unilateral energy supply to achieve a viable future for its inhabitants” the inhabitants are getting stuck with a project whose denominator “green” and “sustainability” are completely misplaced when looking at the negative effects on nature and the living environment.
So it is clear that such solar power projects are completely out of the so-called ‘green’ solution. A green lung is sacrificed to come up with an environmentally friendly solution to a problem that is playing out on a national and global scale.
It is clear that there are other interests here than the so-called “better future for the country.” There is a lot of money involved in these types of projects and investors can achieve considerable returns.
The argument that farmer owners can also benefit because solar panels offer more than crops often affected by drought or heavy downpours can be convincing but unfortunately, it turns out that once again it is the large, often wealthiest, landowners who can make the beneficial deals with investors and that the small and medium-sized local landowner has no chance to enjoy it.
In short, it is only the large investors and owners who will reap the profits and the local population who are suffering with the destruction of an often green and natural living environment. That is why these communities have decided to take action, not only to save their own living environment, but also to mobilize the rest of the population against such patriarchal practices that are nothing more than money machines for the rich.
But, if allowed to go ahead it will be an absolute nightmare for the residents who are now appealing for your help In order to build this mega plant. It will also completely destroy the natural habitat of countless animals, reptiles, insects , birds and plants, not to mention hundreds and hundreds of trees.
They are asking everyone to protest by signing the petition they have recently opened at Change.org against this type of megaproject and in this case to save the natural beauty of the VALLE DE CASTALLA
Join them saying YES to SOLAR ENERGY, but NO to the MACRO PLANTS LOCATED IN AREAS THAT WILL DEVASTATE THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF LOCAL RESIDENTS
You can find the petition by going to change.org and searching for valle de castalla
(https://www.change.org/CONTRA_mega_PRO_solar)
Article by Rudy Puister
