They add 265 megawatts of power and will occupy more than 500 hectares
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition gives the green light to two other large photovoltaic plants in the Region of Murcia, in this case in Mula. The facilities add up to a power of 265 megawatts and are promoted by the company Cobra SL These are the Mula III and Mula I plants, which will be distributed over several plots with a net area of 405.45 and 132.95 hectares respectively. They will have 465,404 photovoltaic modules, as published this Tuesday by the BOE.
The Ministry gave the green light on Monday to two photovoltaic plants in the Mar Menor basin, in the municipalities of Murcia and Torre Pacheco, and rejected another two in Torremendo. In August, the Ministry’s General Directorate for Quality and Environmental Assessment issued a declaration in favor of the construction of a photovoltaic park also promoted by Cobra in the same municipality, with a production capacity of 88 megawatts.
Medium-high impact, according to the City Council
In this case, the Ministry imposes on the project the application and compliance with the corrective measures and necessary modifications, as well as the compensatory ones, as a previous step for the approval of the project. They are aimed mainly at the protection of birds. The General Sub-directorate of Natural Heritage and Climate Change of the Region of Murcia indicates in the file that the promoter must establish green corridors without infrastructures to guarantee the dispersion and connectivity of fauna. In this regard, the Mula City Council qualifies the impact as medium-high due to the high area occupied by the plant, which implies fragmentation and loss of habitat, especially for birds.
The promoter does not propose modifications in this regard, since it concludes that the plant does not pose a connectivity problem by incorporating hunting fencing and the perimeter plant enclosure. It reports that the solar plant could be a “refuge island” for many species of fauna in the nearby ZEPAs, says the environmental statement published today in the BOE.
The plots that are the object of the project are occupying, according to official sources, mainly land cultivated with fruit trees and natural pastures, interspersed with portions of land occupied by mosaics of crops described as agricultural land, with important spaces of natural vegetation and coniferous forests. However, the promoter indicates that due to human action the vegetation described does not correspond to the real one, as it is an eminently agricultural territory.
In total, the project will affect 394.27 ha of fruit trees such as almond and olive trees (276.83 and 117.44 ha Murcia I and Mula III respectively), 82.37 ha of dry land (69.11 and 13 .26 ha), and 31.57 ha of natural pastures (29.32 and 2.25 ha); In addition, Murcia I will affect 2.65 ha of agricultural land with significant spaces of natural vegetation, and 2.6 ha of coniferous forest.
According to the environmental impact study, there are no protected natural spaces in the study area or in its immediate surroundings, the closest being the protected landscape “Barranco de Gebas”, which is located about 2 kilometers south of the plant. Mule III. The project also does not directly affect any area of the Natura 2000 Network, the closest being the ZEC-ZEPA Sierra Espuña, 5 kilometers southwest of Murcia I, whose importance lies in the permanent presence of species such as the golden eagle, eagle owl and common kestrel, being used by the European roller during reproductive periods.
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