Last week the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, travelled to Torrevieja to announce that the expansion of the desalination plant will have a solar plant to meet much of its electricity requirement.
As and when it has environmental approval, the new plant will be built on land that is located on both sides of the La Marquesa highway, within the municipal area of San Miguel de Salinas. The new complex will cover up to 40% of the enormous energy demand of the desalination plant, which is one of the largest in Europe, and will be situated on a plot of 2 million agricultural metres, approximately four times the size of the town itself.
However, environmentalists are already criticising the size of the plot for its “excessive occupation” on land with a high agricultural capacity in the hydrological and landscape basin of the Torrevieja lagoon.
As such, the mayor of San Miguel, Juan de Dios Fresneda (PSOE), has called an extraordinary plenary session on Friday to suspend the granting of licenses to photovoltaic plants in the municipality. They will also create a commission to start mobilizations against the project.
Furthermore, at a meeting held on Wednesday, the Council proposed the constitution of a commission to coordinate all the necessary actions to promote the rejection of the solar park, whose construction is generating great concern among the residents and businesspeople of the town.
This commission will include different groups, parties, irrigation communities and associations, with the objective of mobilizing the public to avoid the creation of the plant.
Friends of Sierra Escalona and Friends of the Southern Alicante Wetlands (AHSA) have both said that they will present objections to the project, when it goes on public display, because it represents, in their opinion, an “excessive” occupation of land with high agricultural capacity that will also divide the ecological corridor between the Sierra Escalona protected landscape and the Lagunas de Torrevieja and La Mata Natural Parks.
Dujring his visit to Torrevieja, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, pointed out that the renewable energy from the proposed solar plant will reduce the cost per cubic meter of water by four cents.