The Generalitat has issued a favorable environmental declaration for the first hybrid power plants planned in Lleida, three projects that will combine wind, solar, and storage batteries on land in Urgell and Conca de Barberà. The processing, however, is not closed and the facilities are now awaiting approval from Urban Planning.
The plants, promoted by the Austrian multinational RP Global, have been named as Martí, Sant Roc and Gardeny. Together they add up to 109 megawatts of wind power with 18 wind turbines, to which are added 30 solar megawatts with 42,000 photovoltaic panels over an area of 60 hectares.
Distribution of mills, plates and batteries among several municipalities
The territorial deployment of the three projects is concentrated in several municipalities in the area. Seven of the wind turbines are planned in Guimerà, where all the solar panels of the three plants will also be located. In Nalec, one wind turbine is planned and in Ciutadilla another five.
Ciutadilla will also concentrate a relevant part of the storage system. There, an area of more than 156,000 square meters will be reserved for the battery installations associated with the three projects. The power foreseen for this storage is 5.65 MW and will allow the plants to have a two-hour autonomy.
The evacuation power lines to transport the energy generated by the wind turbines and the photovoltaic panels will be distributed among Guimerà, Nalec, Ciutadilla and Vallbona de les Monges, in accordance with the resolutions of the renewables committee.
A model still little implemented in the regions of Lleida
The environmental approval of these projects arrives in a context in which battery energy storage continues to have a limited presence in the regions of Lleida. Of the more than one hundred storage projects under processing in the whole of Catalonia, only two are located in this demarcation, according to data from the Generalitat.
Among the storage initiatives that are following their administrative course also features the enlargement of the Moralets reversible hydroelectric plant, although in this case the processing corresponds to the State.
Prullans promotes a local system to face future blackouts
In parallel to these large installations, the Prullans town council has approved a collective self-consumption photovoltaic installation project with a very specific objective, to have electrical energy available in the face of possible supply cuts in the future. The action plans to store surpluses using batteries and add a backup system to continue using that energy if the grid fails.
"It is totally necessary after what has been experienced" - Albert Maurell, mayor of Prullans
The solar panels for this municipal project will be installed on the roof of one of the two social premises of the municipality. The budget amounts to 113,412 euros.
The advance of these initiatives coincides with the proliferation of electrical storage systems registered during the last year, a movement that has gained strength in part after the blackout of April 28 that affected all of Spain and that has accelerated interest in reinforcing energy autonomy both in large projects and in local-scope installations.