Wind farms in the Galician capital of prehistoric rock art: Business development with almost no positive socio-economic impact on rural communities

• by OEGA
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In the past week, members of the Galician Wind Observatory participated in an advisory session for the residents of Moraña and Campo Lameiro regarding the planning and development of several wind farms in the Pontevedra province. This session was organized by the Wind Collective, a regional organization dedicated to promoting rural areas.

The session commenced with a visit to the construction site of the Acibal wind farm, currently being constructed by Norvento SLU. This particular wind farm has stirred significant controversy within the local community due to its adverse environmental and social impacts. Notably, it stands as one of the few wind farms currently under construction in Galicia. Intriguingly, this wind farm received two administrative authorizations. The first was granted on 15 September 2015, and the second through a resolution published on 26 April 2022. The ongoing construction process aligns with the resolution published in April in which the initially company requested authorization for what they termed a “substantial modification project for the Acibal wind farm.” However, the final granted authorization omitted the term “substantial modification” and instead allowed, as it did seven years earlier, the Acibal wind farm to proceed. Acibal maintains the same capacity of 12 MW and houses four wind turbines.

The impacts of the Acibal Wind Farm, concerning the list of affected properties and rights, span approximately 18.3 hectares. This entire area consists of communal land, primarily owned by the MVMC of Acibal de Rebón in the municipality of Moraña. The CMVMC of Amil, also in Moraña, and the CMVMC of Perdecanai, in Barro, CMVMC of Fragas, in Campo Lameiro, have affected properties and rights, but no complete ownership occupation, only easements and airspace.

As per estimates by the GWO, the areas reclassified as rustic for infrastructure protection cover nearly 46 hectares, which is three times more than the occupancy area requested by the company, as included in the file by the Xunta. In contrast, up to 600 hectares are those for which Norvento assumes full wind power ownership in the future due to the “competitor exclusion zone,” according to our interpretation of the overlapping areas defined in Transitional Provision 6.2 of Law 8/2009. In other words, only this company, or a company authorized by it, can initiate the process to request the installation of additional wind turbines in this area.

The residents of Moraña and Campo Lameiro express their surprise that the Xunta de Galicia has not established mechanisms to compensate for the loss of value experienced by private, individual, and collective properties. This loss stems from the change in urban qualification in the present and the inability to develop wind farms on other lands in the future, equivalent to nearly 600 soccer fields in size.

In terms of direct payments to the communities of landowners, the GWO has generated average estimates by considering the prices offered by the developer and the average productivity of the park. The annual income would amount to 73,000 euros. If the developer were to sell electricity at the average price for September 2023, the total revenue would be nearly 5 million euros, rendering the income (for landowners) as a meager representation of 1.5% of the total.

Furthermore, during the advisory session, topics related to the Zudreiro and Anduriña wind farms were discussed. These wind farms, promoted by Green Capital Power, SL, boast capacities of 23 and 41.4 MW, respectively. They lost their right to connect to the grid due to current regulations, which required them to complete their environmental impact assessments before January 2023. Our technicians explained that the regulatory framework, outlined in Royal Decree 118/2020 and Circular 1/2021, along with the Resolution of 20 May 2021, from the National Commission on Markets and Competition, sets specific milestones for maintaining access permits. The developer failed to meet these milestones because the Xunta de Galicia did not resolve the environmental impact declaration on time.

In the execution of this advisory activity, the GWO received support from Aviram Sharma, a senior researcher associated with the Post-Growth Innovation Lab at the University of Vigo.