The Director-General of Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava, explained the importance of socialising this type of park in order to further democratise energy.
This Thursday, the Director-General for Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava, explained to the residents of the municipality of Santa Margalida (Mallorca) the project for the first photovoltaic park open to local participation in Spain, which is being set up in the Balearic Islands: "local participation is essential in the new distributed energy model that is coming; we are moving away from having one or two thermal power plants in the territory to having many renewable installations. Moreover, this local participation links the project with the territory and its citizens. That is why the path we are embarking on with this park is so important because it allows the citizens of the municipality of Santa Margalida to invest in a renewable generation plant and obtain benefits from this investment, returning them as a priority to the territory where the park is installed".
In this sense, Malagrava explained how they can adhere to this socialisation together with the developer, Jordi Quer, from G-Ener - Inti Energía; Berta Fernández Lorenzo, Project Developer of Enerparc, the company in charge of setting up the park, and Adrian Bautista. CEO of FUNDEEN, a FinTech platform that allows interested citizens to invest in environmentally sustainable projects.
The mayor of Santa Margalida, Joan Monjo, has indicated that "Santa Margalida has long been committed to renewable energies, which is why in 2022 we will have almost 30 MW of photovoltaic power installed in our municipality, making it the municipality with the most installed capacity in the Balearic Islands. We are very happy that in Santa Margalida the Government is also betting on this initiative that besides being environmentally sustainable can also make the Balearic electricity system more sustainable before the closure of the coal plant of Es Murterar".
The photovoltaic plant will be called Santa Eulàlia and consists of a double plant of 9.626 MWp, which will be connected to the medium-voltage electricity grid, on the rural estate of polygon 14, plot 90, and will cover an area of 5 ha. The solar park will consist of two identical installations of 4.813 MWp each, Santa Eulàlia I and Santa Eulàlia II. These installations are owned by different owners and have different and independent connection points in the distribution networks.
The offer for this farm (divided into two farms) is 809,360 euros, which will represent a 40% stake in the company (in each of them). It should be noted that thanks to the spirit established in the Law and its desire to democratise energy, 20% of the economic return will remain in the Balearic Islands.
Article 49 of the Climate Change Act of the Balearic Islands (Law 10/2019, of 22 February, on Climate Change and Energy Transition) sets out the conditions relating to local participation in renewable generation facilities and establishes that they must be offered for local investment. In this regard, the Law states that "for the purposes of this Law, renewable generation projects with local participation are considered to be those in which it is accredited that the possibility of participating in at least 20 % of the ownership of the project has been offered to natural or legal persons, public or private, located in the municipality in which the installation is intended to be located or in the municipalities bordering it".
The residents of Santa Margalida will have priority for 15 days to adhere to this investment. Once this period is over, the radius will be extended to the neighbouring municipalities: Artà, Petra, Ariany, Maria de la Salut, Llubí and Muro. It should be noted that 15 days later if this 40% of social participation has not been reached, it will be extended to the rest of the autonomous community. And 15 days later, to the rest of Spain.
Likewise, the Law establishes that "in the event that the project is channelled through a commercial company, 20 % of the ownership of the project must be understood as 20 % of the channelling company. If the same project is carried out by several companies, the opening up to local investment may never be less than 20 % of the total nominal value of all the shares or holdings of the companies that are the vehicles for the project".
According to the Law, the offer of local participation will be mandatory when the renewable generation project is located on land and has a capacity equal to or greater than 5 MW. In this regard, if the number of interested natural or legal persons does not reach 20 %, the offer must be extended to natural or legal persons, public or private, located in the bordering municipalities.
If the 20 % is still not exhausted, the offer must be extended to natural or legal persons, public or private, established in the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands.