The company that has approval to build the Vega del Segura solar plant with 82 megawatts of installed peak power has offered the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco) to supply energy to the Torrevieja desalination plant.

The initiative of the Evergood Capital renewable capital fund comes when the Government’s controversial project to build a second solar plant on 200 hectares of agricultural land in San Miguel de Salinas, in order to lower the cost of producing desalinated sea water in Torrevieja, has generated overwhelming rejection in the municipality.

Last Sunday 3,000 people, half of the municipal population, took to the streets, to demand that Miteco finds another location for the project announced by Prime Minister Sanches at a recent visit to the Torrevieja Desalination Plant.

The Vega del Segura Photovoltaic Solar Park is the only one currently being processed, that has a favourable environmental evaluation in the region, obtained last December.

Since the fever for renewables began, both the Generalitat and the State have ruled out numerous solar park projects in Bajo Segura for environmental reasons when considering them in forested areas or adjacent to protected areas of Sierra Escalona and its surroundings.

The Vega del Segura solar park has an approximate investment of 70 million euros and will occupy 174 hectares in the municipalities of Almoradí, Algorfa and San Miguel de Salinas. The authorisation procedure began in May 2021 and in December 2023 the General Directorate of Quality and Environmental Assessment of the Generalitat favourably resolved the environmental impact declaration of the project. However, the initial area of ​​311 hectares was reduced to 174 following protests from environmental groups.

Several factors could see Acuamed carefully evaluate Evergood’s offer beyond the legal problems it raises. The first is that it already has authorisation, the environmental one. Another point in its favour is that it already has signed long-term lease option contracts with all land owners for a period of 40 years, which would rule out the expropriations for the new plant that are planned by the State.

A further advantage is the similarity in installed power with respect to that planned by Acuamed.

The location of the Sanmiguelera part of the Vega Baja solar park is very close to the land that the Government has proposed for its public plant. The surface distribution of private infrastructure is 20 hectares in Algorfa, 98 in Almoradí and 56.5 in San Miguel de Salinas, a distribution, according to company sources, that reduces its impact in each municipality and “meets the percentages set by the Valencian Community for the rational use and occupation of land.”

The same sources state that once they have the administrative and construction authorisation and the construction licenses “the plant could begin to be built and then be providing electricity to the Torrevieja desalination plant for self-consumption within months.”

The investment fund considers that it is “the best alternative” to replace the photovoltaic proposed by Acuamed and for Miteco to provide renewable electricity to the Torrevieja desalination plant “as it has a similar size and locations.” And it adds that it would make it possible due to its advanced state of development that the desalination plant “could consume renewable energy much sooner than anticipated.”

There is one major disadvantages, however. Acuamed ‘s projects for solar plants that help reduce the energy cost of desalination have received European Next Generation funds, but if the plant is not public the Government will not receive the money.