<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - renewables]]> 10 <![CDATA[Zero kilometer energy]]> Some people, when they look at the countryside, see only plots of land —Guillem Frontera dixit. And some people, when they look at wind turbines and solar panels, see a tap that pours money. The concern for climate change of large companies that are getting rich with large renewable parks is far below their interest in the profit and loss account, as demonstrated by their strategic actions (are we talking about Venezuelan oil?) no matter how much green propaganda they bombard us with to make us believe the opposite.The delay of the Spanish state in the energy transition compared to other European states is explained precisely by the pressure of the large energy corporations of the Ibex-35. The famous “Sun Tax” of the government of Ema Punt Rajoy, which fiscally penalized self-consumption and batteries for storing surplus energy, was the scandalous toll we all paid so that these companies had time to give themselves an environmentalist facelift and get ready to lead the new clean energy business. When the Sun Tax was repealed in 2018, they had already done their work: they had achieved a dominant position in the green energy market.Energy companies, like all companies, seek maximum performance: minimum expenses, maximum profit. That's why they prefer places where it's easy and cheap to build large renewable parks, and rural land is the prime candidate. In places where there is no adequate public land-use planning, the result is the industrialization of the countryside: land previously dedicated to cultivation and pasture is occupied, forests are destroyed, and areas of high environmental value are colonized.This has not been the case for Menorca. The public debate a decade ago generated broad citizen consensus on the desirability of having zero-kilometer energy, but not just anywhere or in any way. The Menorca 2030 Strategy was the culmination of this debate, in which the main objective was established as the reduction of fossil fuels consumed on the island. The work of environmental and cultural heritage defense organizations was effective. Combining pressure and the ability to reach agreements, they fostered a model that many other territories would want to have. On the one hand, the establishment of very strict and mandatory conditions for any energy facility installed on rural land: the prohibition of soil alteration, respect for the dry stone wall network, the maintenance and restoration of ethnological assets by the developers, the prohibition of asphalt paving of service roads, etc. On the other hand, zoning: the PTI of 2023 determines the areas suitable for renewable energies, which prevents them from being installed everywhere.But let's not be complacent, because the work is never finished. The power of large companies, with the invaluable participation of the state-owned public company in charge of energy planning, is like an octopus that always finds cracks to insert its tentacles. Now the danger is that, in addition to producing zero-kilometer energy for its own consumption, Menorca becomes an energy exporting territory.Next to the Mercadal electrical substation, in the center of the island, Red Eléctrica is building a huge high-capacity battery plant. The aim is that, if a blackout like the one on October 28, 2018, which left the island without power for several days, were to happen again, Menorca would have its own emergency resource. But common sense says that these batteries should also be used to store the excess energy from solar parks: the energy produced during the sunniest hours could be stored here, and evacuated at night. This would avoid having to start up the highly polluting Maó thermal power plant, which is the primary objective of the Menorca 2030 Strategy.So, no. Red Eléctrica does not foresee this use of the Mercadal batteries. They say that to channel the surplus solar generation energy, there will already be the second submarine cable that will link Menorca with Mallorca from 2030. Well, there is no doubt that this second cable is very much needed, but it was supposed to guarantee that Menorca does not remain energetically isolated, not to sell energy with Menorca origin denomination abroad.The zoning of the PTI was conceived to determine where solar panels could be placed and where not. But the planning of the state-owned public company will facilitate that large investors, who always sniff out business, place panels everywhere it is permitted to place them. Who will place these photovoltaic parks? To whom will they give benefit? Who will receive the profits from the clean energy that Menorca will export through the second cable?We are not doing well. If Menorca's photovoltaic plants, with the new electric transport networks and battery equipment, do not serve to reduce the island's pollutant emission levels, but rather to turn us into an electric factory that will bring benefits to the owners at the cost of occupying everyone's territory, we will have made the na Peix Frit deal.

]]> <![CDATA[Renewable energy capacity will grow by 10% in the Balearic Islands by 2025 and will already represent almost a quarter of the total.]]>

The Balearic Islands have increased their installed renewable energy capacity by 10.1% in 2025, rising from a total of 541 MW to 596 MW. This increase allows for a power map of the Islands where almost a quarter (24.4%) comes from renewable sources, the vast majority of which (91.8%) is renewable.

]]> <![CDATA[The irrational planning of renewables]]> The Balearic Islands, and Mallorca in particular, face a key moment in defining their present and future in terms of energy and land use. The energy transition is an urgent challenge, yes, but what should be an opportunity to democratize energy, reduce emissions, and protect the land is becoming a threat to the very territory they claim to want to preserve. This attack, in short, adds to the disfigurement of rural land, which, through amnesties and reclassifications, is valued more as investment land than as a vital ecological asset, which it is. The proposal to delimit Priority Development Zones (PDZs) by the Mallorcan Council is a clear example of this: irrational planning, disconnected from the island's energy, territorial, and environmental reality.

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