Arico does not want to be just the municipality where the infrastructure of the rest of the Island is accumulated. At least that is what both the mayor, Olivia Delgado (PSOE), and the first deputy mayor, Andrés Pérez (PP), expressed after the Yesterday, the Government of the Canary Islands approved by decree the execution of the photovoltaic park called Guía III.
Delgado stressed that, given this situation, he has requested an urgent meeting with the President of the Executive, Fernando Clavijo. All this after the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) collected both the authorization of the works and the alteration of the planning that is necessary to make them possible.
Arico currently hosts the Tenerife Environmental Complex – popularly known as the PIRS, the old landfill – and one of the most important wind turbine areas in the Canary Islands. Added to this are two offshore wind farms, contemplated in the national plan for the management of uses at sea (the POEM), and three photovoltaic solar parks, which already have authorization. One of them is Guide III.
The mayor of this municipality warned about “the cumulative effects of these activities, which are affecting the daily lives of residents,” she said, to ask for “meticulous planning before authorizing new installations of wind or photovoltaic parks.”
Delgado pointed out that “numerous facilities already present are altering the territory, flora, fauna and daily routine of the inhabitants,” while highlighting “the lack of cumulative impact analysis by the promoters of these projects.” “There are very numerous wind and photovoltaic parks implemented in the municipality,” he added, “and many more are being processed. Practically everyone in Arico,” he highlighted. The decree published yesterday in the BOC explains that the works consist of the construction of a photovoltaic plant with 4.7 megawatts of power, composed of 10,635 modules, in addition to its evacuation infrastructure.
6,521 tons of carbon dioxide
The reduction in generation extra costs of the electrical systems of non-peninsular territories amounts to 25.38 million euros and the annual decrease in gas emissions with respect to current thermal generation power plants amounts to 6,521 tons of carbon dioxide. in the Canary Islands.
Both the mayor and the first deputy mayor do not express their opposition to the implementation of renewable energies. But they do consider that “energy planning and the evaluation of accumulated impacts are urgently needed. These facilities in Arico cannot continue to be approved in this way.
In short, not like that,” he said about the fact that “the Government of the Canary Islands continues to approve projects” through the fast track of general interest. “The last one today – yesterday for the reader – in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.”
Preserve archaeological sites
The publication of the bulletin justifies the approval of the execution of the works, in addition, in the economic investment that the company JPD Eólico y Fotovoltaico del Sureste SL plans to make, which is estimated at 4,230,000 euros, with the generation of 33 jobs. work in the construction phase and nine permanent once the plant is operational.
The first deputy mayor, who is also a councilor for the Urban Planning area, highlighted the “affects that these infrastructures can also have on archaeological sites”, underlining the need for “an exhaustive analysis of this type of projects.”
Martínez said that “the protection of our sites is not only a cultural duty, but also a strategy to guarantee balanced and sustainable development.”
