Solar Park Boom threats the age -old olive trees of Spain
On his farm in the south of Spain, Francisco Campos looked at a green sea of centuries old olive trees that he fears will face the ax to make way for a presented solar park.
“Reducing olive trees to install solar panels is a crime,” the 64-year-old farmer told AFP in Lopera, a city with whitewashed buildings with 3,600 inhabitants in the sunny southern region of Andalusia, the olive-growing heart country of Spain.
Spain is the world’s top producer of olive oil, but the fertile agricultural land that has been used for a long time by olive producers is now a great demand from energy companies that are looking for sun farms.
And with almost 3000 hours of sunshine a year, Andalusia is one of the Spanish regions with the highest number of solar panels as a tree of renewable energy, the country makes a European leader in green energy.
Renewable energy companies such as Greenalia and FRV Arroyadas have asked for permission to build several solar farms near Lopera, which farmers say they will find up to 1,000 hectares (2500 hectare) real estate.
The companies negotiated agreements to lease most of the country needed for their projects, but encountered a considerable opposition of hundreds of small landowners.
This has encouraged the regional government of Andalusia to announce that it will expropriate some land that is needed for the plants, making them in “the public interest”.
“Is it in the public interest for them to take my country and give it to a company so that the company can benefit? This has no advantage for us,” says Campos.
“Our way of life will be destroyed,” he added.
– ‘From our ancestors’ –
Campaigners predict that the eight solar projects that are planned for the area require the removal of nearly 100,000 olive trees.
The regional government places the figure considerably lower, at 13,000.
Local residents expected energy companies to try to install solar panels in the area, but they had never thought: “They would come and take your property,” said Rafael Alcala, a spokesperson for a platform that represents the opponents of the solar panels.
To support landowners struck by the final round of expropriations, dozens of farmers gathered on tractors – some signs with the text “We don’t want solar plants” – collected on a recent morning outside of Lopera.
“These countries come from our ancestors. What am I going to leave to my children?” Maria Josefa Palomo, a 67-year-old pensioner, said during the protest.
According to the local olive oil cooperative La Loperana, losing 500 hectares of olive groves would wipe out more than two million euros ($ 2.3 million).
Campaigners say that 5,000 olive trees have already been uprooted from the land of a farmer in Lopera who has signed an agreement with one of the companies behind a solar park. More could follow.
In an attempt to stop the projects, opponents brought lawsuits against the regional government and the companies involved.
– ‘Until the end’ –
Spain generated a record of 56.8 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and sun last year, according to Red Electrica grid operator.
Delivering on his sunny plains, windy hills and rapidly flowing rivers, Spain plans to increase the share of renewable electricity to 81 percent of the total by 2030 as part of the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The regional government has defended the projects for renewable energy sources and said that less than one percent of the country they use in the region had to be expropriated by reserved landowners.
The Spanish solar industry Group UNEF, which represents more than 800 companies, says that the projects increase tax revenues in rural communities.
They generate “significant quantities” that can be used to improve public services, said UNEF Hoofd Jose Donoso.
Opponents of Solar Park in Lopera do not agree and promise to continue their fight.
“Until the end. Nobody is going to be what of us,” said Juan Cantera, a 28-year-old farmer.
“Olive oil is everything in Lopera”.
RS/DS/IMM/GV/Tym
