The plan of the Government of Castilla y León to promote energy efficiency in irrigation communities contemplates an investment of 63.2 million and will involve the development of photovoltaic installations for the sustainable irrigation of 92,300 hectares, 50% more than initially committed ( 60,000 ha), with works on 55,100 hectares already started or completed.
to this program The Pisuerga Canal Irrigators Community joins today after the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, María González Corral, and the president of this community of irrigators, Alberto Nebreda, have signed a collaboration agreement to invest in the Plenary Hall of the Astudillo City Council (Palencia) 5.4 million in the execution of a photovoltaic plant for the irrigation of about 12,000 hectares.?
This project, to which the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development contributes 40% of the budget (2.1 million euros), will allow the 4,000 owners that make up the community, belonging to 19 municipalities of the provinces of Burgos and Palencia, can irrigate their plots in a sustainable and more efficient way, “making their farms more profitable and, therefore, more competitive,” indicated the counselor.?
The agreement signed will allow the execution of an infrastructure of 4,475 kW of power destined exclusively for self-consumption, which will produce approximately 6.7 million kWh annually and will mean savings in emissions of 2,400 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year. in addition to reduce your energy bill by 30 to 40%.?
Youth and water
The initiative is part of the program of actions of the Government of Castilla y León to develop photovoltaic installations in irrigation communities, with five projects already completed and another nine in the execution phase, within the commitment to efficient management of water use and specific support to reduce the production costs of agricultural holdings.
This promotes irrigated agriculture, which in Castilla y León it reaches 550,000 hectares, only 13% of its entire crop area, “mainly due to the lack of regulation in the Duero Basin”, as explained by the counselor, and which, as has been proven, “promotes the incorporation of young people into the agricultural world six times more than in dryland areas; it favors the settlement of inhabitants in rural areas, with population densities three times higher than in non-irrigated areas; and encourages investment, multiplying by six compared to dryland areas; has added.??
New irrigation
In this sense, the counselor has referred to the objective that the Government of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco has for the current legislature of initiating actions of modernization and transformation of irrigation in more than 30,000 hectares. In 2024 alone, works worth 72 million euros have been awarded for the modernization of 19,900 hectares. In the last twenty years, and as a result of the investment efforts of the Government of Castilla y León, Seiasa and the irrigation communities, more than 125,000 hectares have been modernized.
The agreement signed today complements the investments made during 2005, 2006 and 2015 to modernize 6,910 hectares and which represented 66.7 million euros of investment by the Board, Seiasa and the Community of Irrigators of the Pisuerga Canal.
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