We had breakfast by reading the news published in the Gazette last March 25. Since the 132 photovoltaic power plants in the province will deprive their owners of the guarantees promised, BİLGİ stated that the solar energy sector fears 100 million losses due to delay in projects, if they do not get their permits by December 31st. We also know that Valencian entrepreneurs are fed up with the bureaucratic lag and that Consell is taking six multi-million dollar projects to neighboring communities due to changes in criteria.
This news saddens me as a person associated with the development of major photovoltaic projects and my land in Alicante, I do not want my Community to continue to be a land of lost opportunities in sustainable development. This is not the opening and ending time of the bureaucratic break announced by the Ministry of Rafa Climent 2 years ago.
I am aware that this is not a land of large plots (and therefore greater difficulties in negotiating leases or sales contracts of plots) or flat land with no shade. I am also aware that the high degree of urbanization of the Valencia region and the higher value of rural hectares compared to other Spanish regions hinder the initial interest of investors in sustainable development. If we add the bureaucratic slowdown and the “off-site” status of the projects that are our regional administration, which have technical-administrative processing competence, this is evidenced by the fact that there are currently 132 projects in our province. While Alicante awaited authorization, the result was a loss of opportunity, echoed in the media.
For example, in the Alicante Municipal District only up to 50% of the surface of a rural plot is allowed to be paneled, making investments less profitable. Not all the land of the Alicante Region, located south of the A31 highway connecting us with Albacete and Madrid, is allowed to be used for solar parks. As they said in some assemblies years ago, “Excuse me… Someone had to say it!!”.
Luckily, days later, especially on March 30, we had breakfast with another news published in Diario Información, which was positive and will cover the campuses of the Universities of Alicante and Miguel Hernández de Elche with photovoltaic panels. Be self-sufficient when seeking help and solutions from Generalitat to face high electricity costs this year. Thus, they envisage measures to reduce consumption and continue to be sustainable areas in the short and medium term. I think this news comes late, because other nearby campuses, such as Murcia and Almería, converted their open-plan parking lots into photovoltaic car parks years ago, where the canopy is covered with solar panels, thus allowing for dual use of the space. : Vehicles and green electricity generation that can be used to meet the university’s consumption and also to charge parked electric vehicles. But beware, the government teams of both Alicante campuses will need to be given conveniences, not bureaucratic hurdles, if they want to resort to private investment to finance the facilities and use them in their first year of life. Let’s seize the opportunity to make campuses an example of sustainability, facilitate investments and technical-administrative process, and not let investors get bored and bet on other projects in other areas. To work!