SOLAR ENERGY FARM PROPOSED FOR TORREVIEJA

The enthusiasm being seen in the solar energy sector is so intense that even in a municipal area like Torrevieja, where there is hardly any land available, a large solar plant project has just been proposed. If authorised, it would be the first such resource located in Torrevieja.

The plot being considered is by the junction of the CV-905 road that connects Torrevieja with Rojales and the CV-945 toward Los Montesinos close to the Natural Park of the Salinas de Torrevieja and La Mata.

The expected power will be 6 MWp, over an area of ??83,000 square meters. It is a project that has to be authorised by the Generalitat Valenciana although it is well below the size where the State would usually assume authorization.

The Torrevieja Council has granted a certificate of urban compatibility. A regulated procedure that states that the land on which the installation is intended is compatible for that use. However, in the document that assesses the landscape impact of the facility, the company barely hints that the plant will be located on the borders the Salinas de La Mata and Torrevieja

Natural Park with only ten metres separating it from the most protected area in the region.

The proposed plots are also adjacent to the location that in 2018 the Torrevieja Council proposed to the Government as the station terminal for the railway line between San Isidro and Torrevieja.

Torrevieja does not have land for solar plants, although it does have thousands of single-family tourist homes that are being fitted with solar panels for self-consumption.

That there is no space for solar plants, half of the municipal area is a natural park and the other half is dedicated to residential and commercial uses, does not mean, however, that Torrevieja does not require this source of energy. It actually needs it rather a lot, particularly as it attempts to reduce the energy cost of producing desalinated water, 80 hectometres a year, that are intended to be expanded to 120, and that are mainly used to provide water to irrigation communities in the agricultural sector of the Region of Murcia. But even this will not scratch the surface as the desalination plant requires a solar power plant with an installed power of 60 MW, ten times more than that proposed in Torrevieja.