AN ESTIMATED 3,000 people hit the streets of San Miguel de Salinas on Sunday to oppose controversial plans for a massive solar farm.
The San Miguel Arcangel Neighbourhood Association organised the protest which included representatives from all political parties as well as local farmers.
The state-owned Acuamed company wants to build the solar farm on some of the most fertile agricultural land in San Miguel to supply power to Torrevieja’s desalination plant.
Participants said they wanted green energy policies but not the way it was being implemented.
Many of them carried placards saying: “Renewable yes, but not like this.”
The farm would cover around two million square metres north of San Miguel’s urban area known as Campo de Salinas and produce 70 megawatts of power.
Opponents say the damage caused would not be compensated by lower water costs coming from Torrevieja’s desalination plant.
Arcangel association president, Manolo Gomez, has called the proposal a ‘complete nonsense’.
“This is the only part of the area where we have small landowners using traditional irrigation for over a century with this kind of farming.”
“There’s a contradiction that we want to produce energy by uprooting trees,” Gomez added.
Besides farming, Sunday’s protestors were concerned about the negative environmental effect of the project as well as its impact on dozens of properties.
San Miguel mayor, Juan de Dios Fresneda, said: “The council totally opposes the plans and we won’t skip on costs when it comes to ordering reports that question the solar farm’s impact on agricultural land.”
“There will be a sociological effect on many people and we will go wherever necessary to fight this,” he promised.
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