The installation of photovoltaic energy megaplants in several municipalities of the Campiña de Jaén has entered the judicial route by admitting a court against the Junta de Andalucía and the promoter companies. The Andalusian Ombudsman has also drawn attention to the lack of regulatory control in the expansion of these centrals of solar energy production, while a study by the University of Malaga has warned of its impact on rural areas.
On the one hand, the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 2 of Andújar (Jaén) has opened proceedings for possible crimes against flora and fauna and environmental prevarication after the complaint filed by the Northern Campiña platform against the installation of several photovoltaic meglantas in the Jiennenses municipalities of Lopera, Arjona and Marmolejo. The denunciation of the Farmers Platform affected by the expropriations of thousands of Olivos is directed against the Provincial Delegations of Economics and Environment of the Junta de Andalucía (which is the one who ultimately approves the projects and expropriations) and also against the promoter companies, Greenalia Solar Power and FRV Arroyadas.
After the opening of judicial proceedings, the platform considers that, now, the municipalities should refrain from granting any license and, if they have granted them, to immediately stop the works permits for understanding that, in case of prospering the complaint, they would have criminal and civil responsibility for all damages caused by the works. Meanwhile, for March 24 and 26 new expropriations of olive trees have been notified. Although the figure will rise to more than 100,000 if all the expropriation records thrive.
The spokesman of the Campiña Norte platform against the solar megaplants, Rafael Alcalá, has denounced that companies continue to carry out tests in the area without even having the corresponding municipalities permits. “And not only that, if not, they be able to be able to be located on adjacent plots, which do not enter into these projects, generating damage with heavy machinery that have been denounced before the Civil Guard,” says Alcalá.
Similarly, the defender of the Andalusian people, Jesús Maeztu, has recognized the lack of control in the expansion of photovoltaic megaplants in the Jaén countryside. In a response to the complaint presented by Francisco Jesús Sevilla, United Left Councilor in Lopera, the defender confirms the existence of a serious problem of normative lack of control, recognizing that the current legislation, of the Junta de Andalucía, has eliminated administrative obstacles and has left the municipalities without decision -making capacity.
In addition, it warns about the lack of adequate territorial planning, noting that a zoning map would have been necessary to determine where these infrastructure can be installed without damaging the economy and the environment of the affected municipalities. “The public authorities have prioritized solar plants on control and participation,” says Maeztu.
The mayor of the United Left, who has withdrawn his support for the municipal government of the PSOE, has warned of a massive and uncontrolled implementation of these projects, “which is razing centenary olive trees and threatening the traditional economic model of the region, without the participation of neighbors or the municipalities.” In addition, he points out that companies are artificially dividing projects to avoid state controls and that negotiation methods with farmers have been, in many cases, coercive and abusive.
However, despite recognizing the problem, the Ombudsman of Andalusia affirms that his margin of action is limited and that those affected must go to other instances. Thus, in relation to the complaint about the fraudulent fragmentation of the projects, he recommends denouncing before the administration. And about the alleged pressures to farmers by the promoter companies, the defender believes that he should be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Negative impact on rural areas
And meanwhile, a study by the University of Malaga ensures that the installation of photovoltaic energy plants in rural areas (which are already affected by climate change), can generate a series of negative impacts on the environment and the water resources of these areas, in addition to a deep transformation of the rural productive model, affecting traditional agrarian activities that are fundamental for the generation of employment and for the economic and social sustainability of these areas.
According to the report on the municipalities of Malaga, Casarabonela, Coín, Guaro and Tolox, these projects make these rural areas “territories of sacrifice, in which the benefits are outsourced while the costs fall on local populations and the environment.”
“The massive implementation of industrial energy infrastructure leads to a new specialization of the territory, marked by strong external units. These include financial units, due to the control of investment funds on the capital necessary for these projects; commercial dependencies, given the volatility of prices in electrical markets; and technological dependencies, since the territories are tied to specific technologies, such as photovoltaic, whose production and maintenance are usually dominated by actors external to the region ”, is exposed in the study of professors José Damián Sinoga, Matías Mérida Rodríguez and Juan Marcos Castro Bonaño. And he concludes claiming “a more careful and equitable planning of the energy transition, prioritizing decentralized, socially inclusive and respectful models with local productive systems and the natural environment.”
On the other hand, the citizen platform has presented to the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía a letter informing of the discovery of several archaeological milestones (burials, remains of structures or ceramics) in several of the plots where the photovoltaic plates and the evacuation lines are intended to install, requesting the paralysis of any work license to the municipalities. For this area, one of the arteries that communicated the port of Cádiz with Rome was running for centuries. The Carthaginians called her on the way to Aníbal, then she was called Hiraclea or Hercúlea and, finally, after being finished and modernized by order of the Roman Emperor César Augusto, she took the name of Vía Augusta, where the old National Highway IV of Andalusia was drawn.
