Forestalia projects 3,000 MW of wind energy and other renewable in Teruel

Forestalia projects 3,000 MW of renewables in Teruel with an investment of 2.4 billion euros and 12,000 jobs,
The province of Teruel has a map of renewables that is in operation at 40%, with 1300 million investment and 234 jobs created.
Teruel creates a model of association of municipalities for the establishment and implementation of renewable energy parks and socialize the benefits.
Teruel has been today the scene of the presentation of a great project. Actually, several, starring Forestalia.

The Aragonese company projects 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy in 50 municipalities in the province of Teruel, to develop 66 wind and photovoltaic parks in the next four years, with an expected investment of more than 2.4 billion euros. These parks represent 12,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction years, and more than 450 in operation, as explained by the president of the Company, Fernando Samper.

It is, according to the President of Aragon, Javier Lambán, a social project (job creation), green (affordable and non-polluting energy) and digital, in line with SDG 7 and 8 of the 2030 Agenda, where three elements of success converge : the company, the Government of Aragon and the municipalities.

Specifically, Forestalia plans to develop a portfolio of 34 photovoltaic parks and 32 wind farms in the province of Teruel, which total 1,640 and 1,300 MW respectively. The total investment of these projects is more than 2,400 million euros, with a forecast of income in the territory of more than 408 million in 30 years, through municipal taxes and land rental. The work horizon for the development and execution of the projects is four years.

In addition to all these wind and photovoltaic projects, Forestal will promote a pellet production plant in the municipality of Andorra. It will be the largest pellet plant in Spain, with a production capacity of 200,000 tons per year. The Andorra plant will create 60 direct jobs at the plant, and more than 350 in forestry, storage and logistics of biomass. Forestalia currently has two pellet plants, located in Erla (Zaragoza) and Huerta de Rey (Burgos).

In addition, this announcement so decisive for the communications of the Turolenses regions, is accompanied by a new model created in the province of Teruel whereby the establishment and implementation of renewable energy parks that promote private companies is made on municipal land. The municipalities will see the raw material generated and transformed in the same province, which generates jobs during and after its installation, since the objective is to reinvest the benefits to create new employment niches.

This model, nonexistent so far, initially brings together 42 municipalities (18% of the entire province) in four associations: Ongoing: High Wind (11 municipalities); pending: Altiplano (9) and Majalinos (12). In project: Mudejar (9), in our projects involved companies such as Samca, Galaxy, Forestalia, Endesa, Cobra, Renewable Energies of Teruel, Renomar, etc.

One of its fines is the act jointly and severally to process the corresponding authorization files and share part of the income, through a common fund, for the benefit of all municipalities, number of mills or plates installed in their municipal terms. Once the activity that generates income to the municipal agencies is installed, by rent and the corresponding taxes, it will be possible to generate employment, female specific, and economic activity, through business-SME formulas with public-private formula and professional management .

The model has already been approved by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and what it has transmitted, once one of the associations is also carried out with the municipality of Morella, in the neighboring province of Castellón. Energy production thus transcends the scope of the region itself, which requires ministerial processing.

The Government of Aragon has been working to promote this solidarity form of municipal associations since 2017, when in September of that year it requested authorization from the Ministry to evacuate energy in the Mudejar substation that, until then, did not have it. This permit was obtained on July 25, 2018 at the Council of Ministers, which could also expand the Morella node with more than 1,000 MW. Subsequently, in August 2019, Red Eléctrica approved the distribution of megawatts to companies.

This has allowed Forestalia to start this model today, as in the future what other companies can do. The President of Aragon, Javier Lambán, has emphasized the urgency of acting against depopulation and that the 2030 Agenda presides over the autonomous policies and recalled that among the 132 governance measures of this Government, measures such as continuing to support and support maintain the leadership of Aragon in renewable energy, strategic sector, betting on diversification, as well as promoting a just energy transition.

In his opinion, “Teruel not only exists, it is evident, but it works and very well.” He has applauded the Forestalia initiative and has encouraged to make the projects capacities to be strengthened, instead of remaining in the melancholy of the permanent complaint, because he affirms that this is the only way “country project” is done.

Therefore, it has put in value and has realized the steps taken to arrive at this presentation of the associations of pioneer municipalities in Spain for the installation of wind and photovoltaic parks, in a model of public-private collaboration.

In fact, the province of Teruel has a map of renewables that is in operation at 40%, with 1300 million investment and 234 jobs created, a reality that has been generated since the previous legislature, in which projects also emerged of very different draft and typology.

To these must be added the start-up, whether newly created facilities or extensions of others, of 55 projects that generated an investment of 150 million euros and 740 jobs in agri-food, social, industrial initiatives, related to aeronautics or engine, among others.

There are currently 28 more business projects in process and another 45 in the portfolio, as President Lambán has advanced in an exhibition in which he has continued to maintain the necessary discretion about some of these initiatives under development, but in which he has instilled courage over the good March of the province of Teruel, which makes him insist that “Teruel works and getting better”.

The Vice President of the Executive, Arturo Aliaga, has also stressed that “it is the time of Aragon” and has encouraged to work in common between the central government, the Government of Aragon, companies and municipalities, involving all actors. Likewise, he has stated that in addition to what has already been done, there are still challenges ahead, such as electric highways.