CAMPAIGNERS are calling for work on a major solar development in Malaga’s Guadalhorce Valley to be halted, warning it is destroying a ‘rich wildlife corridor’ at the foot of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park.
Progress of the project has been ‘astronomical’, a local resident told the Olive Press, transforming a ‘mosaic of fields’ into empty expanses of dirt since its start in March.
The Valle Natural Rio Grande association claims that hundreds of local landowners have faced expropriation after renewable energy infrastructure was granted ‘Public Utility’ status, allowing developers to acquire private land.
The group also says the development has been pushed through using political and environmental loopholes, including breaking down large projects into smaller installations, a ‘jigsaw’ method which allows projects to avoid more rigorous environmental checks.
At the centre of the controversy is Austrian energy giant Verbund, which is 51% owned by the Austrian government.
Campaigners argue that the project has effectively given a foreign state-backed company access to privately owned agricultural land through Spain’s expropriation laws.
“It’s undeniable that the Austrian government has expropriated Spanish people and residents here.” Marisa Casal, a local campaigner in the association, told the Olive Press.
Campaigners say their concerns have been compounded by what they describe as a lack of transparency and access to information by local authorities.
“The town hall of Coín has not granted us an appointment in more than a year, year and a half, we’ve been asking to see the mayor,” Casal said.
According to the Casal, when association representatives stood up to raise concerns during a recent council plenary session, officials allegedly turned off the public broadcast cameras before allowing them to speak.
“He allowed us to talk, but they stopped the camera. So if you now go to the link of the plenary of Coín, they literally stopped the cameras before we started talking.”
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“I think I feel massively disappointed with the town council.” Jonathan, a local resident from the UK, told the Olive Press.
He and his wife, Mary, have watched the fields around their property transform in the last few months, waking up to the ‘woodpecker fiesta’ of heavy machinery as the land gets cleared and prepped for solar panel installation.
“That’s the real frustration… that they’ve just let it happen and they’ve kind of done it in an underhanded way.”
In a recent interview on Canal Coin, mayor Francisco Santos Cantos defended the town hall’s position on the controversial solar project, insisting now that it was declared national interest, stating that ‘there is no municipal mechanism that can stop it.’
Environmentalists have warned that the construction is damaging the Rio Grande ecosystem, with heavy machinery stripping vegetation and topsoil close to the riverbed.
A 2025 University of Malaga study warned that these solar megaprojects could create a local ‘sacrifice zone’, increasing temperatures and erosion while requiring millions of litres of water for panel cleaning.
The Valle Natural Rio Grande association has now taken its challenge to a Madrid court, where it plans to present its environmental and scientific evidence.
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