The Xunta will value in its permit to renewable projects if they lower the price of electricity to residents

The Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE) awarded Muras its Eolo 2021 Rural Integration Award. The municipality located in the region of A Terra Cha has been living with the sector for almost 30 years. The first wind farm was built in 1995, when the use of wind as a source of energy still sounded like a chimera to many. Today there are 15 installations in operation, totaling 485 megawatts (MW), 13% of all the operating power in Galicia. There, the problem of depopulation was suffered long before the concept of "empty Spain" became fashionable. According to the latest official census data, there are still 602 residents in a municipality of just over 163 square kilometers where 381 wind turbines are located. The great development of wind energy is the main reason why Muras is at the head of the levels of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per inhabitant: 88,338 euros, four times more than the regional average (21,755 euros). Half of the concello's public income comes from taxes from wind developers and since 2015 the government team, led by the nationalist mayor Manuel Requeijo, has direct aid to households to, among other things, alleviate the electricity bill.

Is it possible to go a step further and extend the measure to all development territories to compensate them for possible impacts? The idea, which until recently would have been considered an attack on market unity, is gaining support. Germany is considering it; the Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, let it slip a few weeks ago; and the Xunta plans to incorporate electricity rebates to companies and households in the changes in their evaluation process to renewable projects in the new law on the use of natural resources that today will begin to be processed in the Consello.

A utility company

It is the same rule that the president of the Xunta announced last Tuesday to give a legal framework to the creation of a public-private partnership that the regional executive will use to participate in the capital of wind farms and other green technologies to then reinvest the dividends in compensation of the territory. Alfonso Rueda revealed yesterday in the Galician Parliament that a change in the evaluation processes of the projects that require the approval of his administration is also foreseen. In the environmental impact statements, other issues such as "the participation of local investors, the creation of jobs in the area, the reduction of electricity prices for individuals and companies or the preservation of cultural and natural assets" will be assessed.

Compensations, in short, that will also serve to tip the balance of the Xunta on which projects will enter "the future utility together with other public and private actors". Rueda expressly mentioned the possibility of being a partner or "promoting", implying that the company will also have a promoter profile from the beginning. "An opportunity for Galicia", defended the regional president, the result of "useful politics", despite the fact that for a long time the popular party demonized the bet that at the time launched the Bloc to force the presence of the Xunta in the shareholding of wind farms.

Parliamentary debate

The spokeswoman of the nationalist party made no mention of the Xunta's initiative yesterday during the session in O Hórreo. Ana Pontón took advantage of the control session to demand the repeal of the Maritime Space Management Plans (POEM) that, among other fundamental issues, identify possible areas suitable for floating offshore wind in Galicia. "How is it possible that they intend to kill a sector that feeds 64,000 Galician men and women? Because this is what offshore wind power means," said Pontón, referring to the alleged damage to fishing. Rueda reminded him that the road to climate neutrality requires "multiplying by many hundreds" the renewable power and defended the need to take advantage of "the opportunity" of offshore wind in balance with the fishing sector.

Outside the autonomous Parliament, the secretary general of the PSdeG applauded "the turn" of the Xunta "to what the socialists demanded". Valentín González Formoso demanded that this future public participation be extended to storage, biomass and green hydrogen projects.

"Eólica, así non" will surround the Xunta's headquarters to protest against "depredation".

The platform "Eólica, así non" has called a rally to surround the main administrative building of the Xunta in the Galician capital to protest against wind energy development plans on April 23. Under the slogan "No to speculative macro-wind depredation", the organizers intend to show the protest of environmental groups, trade unions, political parties and other entities against the concession for the exploitation of wind turbines recently granted by the authorities. The platform, which includes the environmental association Adega and the trade union CIG, indicates that it is not opposed to the development of non-fossil energy capture projects, but rejects the fact that they particularly benefit large energy companies and that they are installed in areas where they may harm the environment and the local economy. They claim that some of the latest projects with an environmental declaration are located in areas where there is a risk of "habitat disappearance".