The regional minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Ángeles Vázquez, warned today that the central government is preparing a new binding environmental zoning that will aggravate the paralysis of the wind energy sector in Galicia.
During her speech at the inauguration of the Galician Energy Forum, the regional minister argued that the Community is the only administration competent to identify the most environmentally suitable areas of its territory for the development of wind energy projects, in which, according to the Renewable Energy Acceleration Directive and the European Green Pact, administrative procedures must be simplified.
Along these lines, the regional minister stressed that Galicia declared through the 2024 Measures Law the superior public interest of wind energy initiatives by incorporating the European directive into its legislation and regretted that the central government had not done the same. In fact, she criticised the fact that it intends to do so now “in two months” through this new proposal for environmental zoning and only after the European Union opened a file against Spain on this issue.
In this sense, after recalling that 77% of the wind power suspension orders issued by the High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) are based on a misinterpretation of the current zoning of the central Government, which is only indicative, Ángeles Vázquez stressed that the problem may increase because from now on there will be areas in which the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge will determine that it is not possible to install a project due to environmental conditions. “No one is as qualified as Galicia to know which areas are suitable for the implementation of renewable energies,” said the minister.
In fact, the Xunta is already working along the lines set by the European Union, facilitating the processing of new wind projects and voluntary repowering that improve the efficiency of current parks and reduce their impact on the landscape, as they allow the number of wind turbines to be reduced by up to 80% and their renewable energy production capacity to be increased by 35%. In the last year alone, the voluntary repowering of six parks was authorized, and in the case of another two they already have a favorable environmental assessment – about to be definitively authorized – and another is in the final phase of its environmental processing.
In addition, the regional government is preparing the Law on simplified environmental administration with which Galicia will be placed in a leading position through one of the most modern and innovative environmental regulations in the entire country, which guarantees and offers at the same time the legal security that both promoters and public administrations involved demand in this area.
To conclude, the regional minister stressed that Galicia wants to consolidate its leading position in facing the major climate challenges through the development of renewable energy. In this regard, she recalled that it concentrates 14% of the installed wind power in Spain and that, if the wind farms halted by the courts were built, the emission of 2.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere would be avoided, which is a quarter of what the Community needs to reduce to achieve the objective of climate neutrality.
