Northern Portugal attracts a 150 million investment in wind blade plant

If the 84 wind farms that have just been validated with the moratorium of the Ministry for Ecological Transition prosper, more than 570 new wind turbineswill be planted in Galicia over the next two years. But, although the commitment to the wind business is clear in Galicia, the same is not true for the investments required to build the towers and blades. It is true that these wind farms will entail an outlay of more than 2,400 million euros -provided that they complete all the pending regulatory procedures and are connected to the grid-, but this amount corresponds to the installation and evacuation lines of these windmills, not to their manufacture. Galicia places windmills in its mountains... but who assembles them is, for example, Portugal. The Chamber of Viana do Castelo yesterday approved the partial suspension of its Plano Diretor Municipal (analogous to a general urban plan) to legally accommodate the construction of a wind turbine megafactory: 150 million euros of investment and the creation of 2,000 jobs.

Viana do Castelo is ready to receive an investment for the construction of an industrial unit for the production of blades for wind turbines of 150 million euros," states the documentation sent by the local executive to the members of the corporation, "capable of creating 2,000 jobs and an annual export volume of 200 million euros". The company's objective is to start construction work on the factory next June, with a view to assembling the first blades in the same month of 2024. The government of Viana has ignored any environmental impediment to this project: part of the infrastructure, which will extend over an area of 29.3 hectares in the parish of Vila Nova de Anha, will invade an area of the nature network, special protection for flora and another of the National Agricultural Reserve (RAN).

To overcome any reluctance, this opinion stresses the fact that this initiative represents half of all the investment already captured by Viana do Castelo since 2013. The Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte (CCDRN), under the aegis of the ministries of Coesão Territorial, Modernização do Estado or Ambiente e da Ação Climática, has given it its blessing. "Given the high socioeconomic interest of installing the industrial building planned in the municipality, given the relevant positive impacts that will result from its execution, and given that the current PDM does not allow us to house it, we understand that the conditions are met to issue a favorable opinion," the CCDR-N report refers textually. The municipal group of the PSD has requested a change of location, due to its impact on the landscape and the "destruction of thousands of trees", and to move it to an area adjacent to the Neiva industrial park. The mayor, Luís Nobre, has ruled it out because it is in a "mining" zone.

The identity of the company, of German capital, has not been revealed for the moment, although the Portuguese press alluded to Enercon. When asked by FARO, sources from the multinational -fifth in terms of installed power in Spain, with a little more than 825 megawatts (MW)- ruled out that they are the promoters from the city of Aurich. Nordex, together with General Electric Renewable, are the other major German manufacturers in this industry. Last year, the former closed two factories in Rostock and La Vall d'Uixó (Castellón), which led to the joint dismissal of 710 workers. In Galicia, after the closure of Siemens Gamesa in As Somozas and despite being the fourth community with the largest installed capacity in Spain today, there is no wind blade manufacturing.