Concern of UIB students and professors about the felling and relocation of trees to install solar pergolas
The UIB defends that the actions are part of its plan to achieve energy self-sufficiency and assures that the specimens will be replanted in other spaces on campus
PalmThe felling and relocation of trees on the UIB campus, especially in the Can López car park (located behind the Guillem Cifre de Colonya and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos buildings), has generated unease among part of the university community, who question the impact of the actions on the campus's landscape and natural heritage.
One of the critical voices has expressed its disagreement with the intervention. “When I started working on campus, more than 200 trees were planted in this car park. After 30 years, when those small trees had become majestic and beautiful, it has been decided to cut them down to install metal awnings with solar panels. Perhaps this is the future, but I find it (very) difficult to understand,” he laments.
The intervention is part of the UIB's energy transformation project, which aims to turn the Palma campus into an energetically self-sufficient space. According to the university, this initiative is part of the 2030 Sustainability Strategy, which combines reducing energy consumption with the implementation of renewable sources.
Fight against climate change
To achieve this goal, the institution has prioritized the use of building roofs, which will cover approximately 23% of the energy demand, but it has also promoted the installation of photovoltaic panels in parking lots and other transformed areas of the campus, in line with current climate change legislation.
In the specific case of Can López, the construction of solar pergolas has involved the relocation of about sixty trees. UIB sources assure that many specimens were sick and that others had already been removed before the start of the works due to their poor condition. Furthermore, they recall that a significant part of the area was already affected by the metro expansion works to ParcBit.
The university maintains that healthy trees will be replanted in other parts of the campus, following the tree conservation policy that has already been applied in previous actions. It also emphasizes that spaces with special natural value have been preserved, such as the car park at the entrance of Son Lledó, where it has been decided not to install pergolas in order to maintain the existing specimens.
The overall project foresees the installation of 7.48 MWp of solar photovoltaic power, a capacity that would allow generating more than 100% of the energy consumed by the campus. According to the UIB, this will mean an annual saving of close to 1.2 million euros and will avoid the emission of more than 3,200 tons of CO₂ each year. Despite these benefits, criticism points to the loss of established trees and the transformation of green spaces, a debate that brings to the fore the tension between the energy transition and the preservation of the urban landscape.