Solaria signs over 1,000 agreements with landowners in the BAC

Solariuma company that generates photovoltaic solar energy has already signed agreements with more than 1000 owners of land for the development of their photovoltaic power plants in the Basque CountryJo. According to the promoter of the solar park, it will sign approximately 3,000 additional contracts in the coming months.

The same day that the Deadline for accusations against the Solaria projects in Álavathe company has announced the conditions under which it will lease or purchase the land for its solar parks.

As mentioned, he rents the land for 1,500 euros per hectare per year and buys it for 25,000 euros per hectare. This means, according to their calculations, a total expenditure of 180 million euros in land lease for 30 years, the lifespan of the solar power plants.

Aitor UriarteSolaria’s Institutional Relations Coordinator in Euskadi, has assured that the company “is acting in mutual agreement with the farmers or owners to use the land where the photovoltaic plants will be located. Each owner is free to decide whether to rent, sell or continue with their usual activities”.

Solaria is currently planning three projects for photovoltaic installations to produce energy in Álava and transmit it through an electrical line to the Zierbena substation (Bizkaia), three macroparks that foresee an investment of more than 104 million euros to occupy 373 hectares with the plan to install more than 310,000 photovoltaic panels.

This project would affect the municipalities of Ribera Baja, Iruña de Oca, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zigoitia, and would be complemented by a 100-kilometre high-voltage evacuation line that would affect nine municipal areas in Álava and another ten in Bizkaia. The reluctance of these municipalities has led the company to hold meetings in the cities to explain the plans.

Criticism is increasing

This Wednesday, the deadline for accusations against these three photovoltaic installations ended. And due to the multitude of criticisms, the end of this period, which began on May 8, had to be postponed from June 12 to July 10, a period in which the accusations and public rejection have increased significantly.

For example, residents of Urkabustaiz, Zigoitia and Zuia have filed more than 5,450 individual accusations against the Solaria projects with the Basque Government’s Ministry of Industry.

The Deputy General of Álava, Ramiro Gonzalezfor its part, reported this Tuesday that the regional institution is working on the accusations that will be presented to the renewable energy project in Solaria, and has stressed that the position that the Provincial Council has conveyed to the company is that the Territory “wants renewable energy generation projects that are carried out while preserving biodiversity and also, to the extent possible, agricultural land”.

González explained that they are not finished yet, stressing that it is “intense technical work”. However, he reiterated that the position of the Provincial Council is that “Álava needs energy to maintain its way of life, to maintain the territory, agriculture and industry; it must maintain both.”