The state of Norway reaches the mountains of Ourense and León

• by OEGA
• 0 Comments

A few days ago the GWO reported a boom in the request for wind farms through the Ministry for Energy Transition and the Demographic Challenge. These projects either exceed 50 MW of power or affect two Autonomous Communities. Among them, we would like to highlight the 3 projects underway in Ourense, one of which also affects various municipalities in the province of León. These wind farms are Rebordechao, Barjas and Prada. The first two have just entered the initial consultation phase in which various public and private organizations are consulted to assess the scope of environmental impact. The GWO informed the affected municipalities of the start of these proceedings.

How much power do they plan to install?

Rebordechao plans a total capacity of 154 MW with 28 wind turbines and 5.5 MW of unit power. The wind turbines are to be located in Laza (13 wind turbines); Maceda (between 4 and 5 wind turbines) and Vilar do Barrio (between 11 and 12 wind turbines and substation).
Barjas plans for a total capacity of 121 MW with 22 wind turbines and 5.5 MW of unit power. All the wind turbines are to be located in Barjas, province of León. The substation is to be located in the municipality of Oencia (Leon).
Prada plans a total capacity of 170.5 MW with 31 wind turbines and 5.5 MW of unit power. The wind turbines would be located in A Veiga, Carballeda de Valdeorras and O Barco de Valdeorras. Assigning the 31 wind turbines to each of these three municipalities with the available information is not an easy task because they are mostly located on their dividing lines (13 wind turbines). The substation is to be located in Barco de Valdeorras.
The three wind farms total 445.5 MW, of which 324.5 (those of Rebordechao and Prada) would be entirely inside municipalities of Ourense. The province of Ourense currently has 220.44 MW installed in Castro Caldelas, Chandrexa de Queixa, Montederramo, Avion, Carballeda de Avia, Melón, O Irixo, Baltar, Cualedro, Xinzo de Limia, Nogueira de Ramuín, Xunqueira de Espadanedo , Parada de Sil, Esgos, Bande and Verea. It also shares 186.6 MW with the province of Pontevedra. The impact in terms of power would therefore be very significant.
The new wind turbines of these two wind farms in Ourense would have a unit capacity of 5.5 MW: more than double the power of the largest so far established (the O Vieiro wind farm, installed in Bande and Verea in 2009, has 3 wind turbines of 2 MW. This is the same wind power as the 11 wind turbines of the Serra do Burgo Extension launched at the end of 2004 in the municipalities of Montederramo and Chandrexa de Queixa).

More than 75 kilometers of Connection Lines

The three wind farms would evacuate energy in the province of Ourense to existing substations through 220 kV overhead evacuation lines. These lines would proceed from each of the new wind farm substations, where all the energy produced in each wind turbine would come together.
The substation of Rebordechao is to be constructed In the City council of Vilar do Barrio. From this point an aerial line would travel to the Sil-Meda Substation. The route of the line would total approximately 20 miles through the municipalities of Maceda, Montederramo, Xunqueira de Espadañedo and Nogueira de Ramuín.

Barjas and Prada would evacuate in the Substation of Trives, to which the electricity would arrive from their respective transformer substations. In the case of Barjas, the route of the 220 Line would continue from the municipality of León de Oencia through Vilamartín de Valdeorras (parishes of San Vicente de Leira, Cernego, San Miguel de Outeiro, Valencia do Sil, Correxais), Petín (parish of Santoalla do Monte ), O Barco de Valdeorras (parish of Santa Mariña de Monte), Larouco (parish of Seadur), San Xoán de Río (parishes of San Xurxo and San Xoan de Río) and Quiroga (parishes of A Enciñeira, Montefurao, Vilanuíde and Valdeorra ) to A Pobra de Trives (parish of Navea). The line will span a total length of 53.56 km.
In the case of Prada, the electricity would be led from the Barco substation to Petín (about 3 kilometers) where it would connect with the overhead transmission line coming from Oencia driving the electricity to Trives.
Therefore, the 3 windfarms would evacuate the electricity in the province of Ourense by means of new 220 kV high voltage lines that are to span a length of approximately 76 kilometers.

The Special Case of Barjas

This wind farm is a bit striking because all its wind turbines are to be located in León, while the Energy Evacuation Line would be housed in the municipalities of Vilamartín de Valdeorras, Petín, Larouco, A Pobra de Trives and San Xoán de Río, Ourense, and Quiroga in Lugo to the connection point in Pobra de Trives.

Who is the promoter?

The promoter of the three wind farms is a subsidiary of the Statkraft Group called Desarrollos Renovables Iberia Delta S.L. This group is fully owned by the State of Norway. As in Spain and other European countries, the liberalization of the electricity market took place in this Scandinavian country in the 1990s. This liberalization permitted Statkraft to continue as a fully public company while being managed with business criteria. It has become a global player in electricity production with presence in Europe, America and Asia.
However, the results of liberalization in Spain have been totally different. Public capital was also present in electricity generation In the 90s in Spain ENDESA was 100% public. Today this is no longer the case. Interestingly, what used to be ENDESA is now under the control of the Italian state: the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance is its main shareholder.
Yet public participation in electricity companies is not specific to Italy. For example, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar (controlled by the Qatar Investment Authority) is one of the main shareholders of Iberdrola, a very important player in the Galician renewable sector. The Chinese state controls about 20% of the capital of EDP, which acts as EDP Spain, S.A.U. or EDP Renovables, S.A. in Galicia; the aforementioned Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar and Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway are also involved in EDP.
The Spanish state has no participation in the sector, but nothing prevents it from participating. At the Galician level, the Autonomous Community has a symbolic participation in several wind farms. On the other hand, 13 Galician municipalities own 40 MW, in the so-called singular wind farms.

Will there be a differentiated impact on the rural environment?

From the GWO we have drawn attention on the level of corporate social responsibility and how it conditions and determines responses concerning the type of interaction between developers and rural communities. We observe companies with greater social responsibility that are more flexible in terms of facilitating the participation rural communities as well as companies whose sole purpose is to settle MW on rural land, only willing to force a dynamic imposing unfavorable conditions upon rural communities. What will happen in this latter case? As we have no record of any previous action taken by Statkraft or its subsidiaries in Galicia, we have nothing to say. We only hope that they are placed in the group of the most socially responsible and environmentally sensitive companies so that the increase in installed renewable capacity may also prove useful to sustainably revitalize rural communities.
Finally, it is also worth noting that these wind farms are located in the vicinity of several spaces included in the Natura Network (for example, the Special Conservation Areas Ancares-Caurel and Macizo Central) and their evacuation infrastructures cross environmentally fragile areas. Consequently, it will be necessary to take extreme precautionary measures so that these hypothetical infrastructures do not cause irreversible environmental damage.