Valencian government scraps plan to build a wind farm in El Comtat
After almost 15 years of back and forth between the government and environmentalists, the Council has put an end to zone 14 of the Valencian Wind Energy Plan. This has been decided by the Minister of Sustainable Economy, Rafa Climent.
The minister has rejected the provisional approval of the special plan of this wind zone number 14, through the delegation with the general director of Energy, Maria Empar Martínez. All this began when, in June of 2004, DOGV number 4,777 was published in the resolution by which it submitted to public information the special plan for zone 14, the preliminary projects of the wind farms and their electric lines, in addition of the environmental impact study of this wind zone.
The villages that were directly affected by the high voltage lines and the wind parks were Almudaina, Balones, Benillup, Benialfaquí, Catamarruch, Margarida, Planes, Benimassot, Castle of Castells, Cocentaina, Fageca, Famorca, Gorga, Millena, Quatretondeta, Tollos, Beniaia and the Vall d’Alcalà.
The Civic Platform for Citizens and Citizens, in charge of the defence of the mountains and valleys, proposed that this project would affect all the inhabitants and visitors of a wide area.
Nearly 40,000 signatures were collected by citizens opposed to the wind farms being built.
Consequently, the denial of the Ministry supposes that, not having provisional approval, it will no longer send the file to the Ministry of the Environment, who would correspond to the Environmental Impact Assessment, prior to the The final approval of the special plan, so the wind farms in zone 14 cannot be built.
