Socio-environmental conflicts linked to Galician wind farms

• by OEGA
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As repeatedly indicated by the GWO, the current regulatory framework in Galicia contains significant flaws concerning local communities: they are given no decision-making capacity and their participation is limited to only a few administrative procedures; it is very difficult for local communities to promote and develop wind farm projects without specific figures favoring and encouraging this option; the distance from turbines to rural centers have not been updated since 2002 despite the enormous technological leap in wind energy over recent years and the current size of turbines; and the economic income of local communities is very limited due to the regulatory framework and the possibility of expropriation, etc.
Different social and environmental conflicts have arisen in Galicia regarding the energy transition process and the start-up of wind farm projects. Some of the longest-standing projects have recently been reactivated while others have appeared more recently. Several cases in southern Pontevedra led by collective entities such as the Plataforma pola Defensa da Serra do Galiñeiro, SOS Groba or the Plataforma pola Defensa dos Montes del Morrazo are noteworthy among these long-standing projects. Conflicts arose around 2010 with plenary agreements in several city councils against projects and important social mobilizations, especially in the case of Galiñeiro, where hundreds of people marched across the mountains against wind projects. Serra do Oribio conforms a similar case, given its historical trajectory, in which the entity Salvemos O Iribio has led a conflict halting the construction of a wind farm that affects the Natura Network.

Noteworthy among the most recent cases of social and environmental conflict are those within the province of A Coruña. The case linked to several wind farms in the Ordes Region have echoed across the media with the entity Salvemos a Comarca de Ordes serving as a reference. We also find other examples of social movements in conflicts associated with new and old projects of wind power plants, e.g. Ponteceso (Plataforma Veciñal Contra os Eólicos de Ponteceso), Monte Neme (Plataforma pola Defensa del Monte Neme), those in the municipalities of Carballo, Coristanco, Santa Comba and Negreira (Plataforma Non Máis Eólicos Campelo-Bustelo-Toural) as well as those of other municipalities like Outes and Mazaricos, with their respective associated citizen platforms.
Calling for a change in the Galician regulatory framework, social movements have set out their demands in different manifestos. Two very recent ones set out by Aldeas con Horizonte are the Manifesto for a moratorium on new wind farms and a new wind development model for Galicia and the Manifesto opposing the Serras da Groba and Galiñeiro wind farms.
As signaled by the GWO, the social and environmental conflict arising throughout different parts of Galicia over recent years reveals the urgent need for regulatory changes to create/encourage a shift towards an energy transition model with a greater level of energy justice for local communities.