Spain needs energy storage solutions, that is indisputable. With a good part of its electricity from renewables, the country faces the great challenge of saving energy when the wind does not blow or the sun appears. In that context, the Villar Mir project appears in Granada: a reversible hydroelectric plant of 356 MW linked to the Rules reservoir.
A key step in the procedures. The Villar Mir Energy subsidiary has just achieved the FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT DECLARATION of the Ministry for Ecological Transition. The approval is a decisive impulse after years of waiting: the granting of water of the Junta de Andalucía was granted since 2020, but this procedure was missing, probably the most complex of all.
The resolution, published in the Official State Gazette, also imposes a package of environmental conditions with preventive, corrective and compensatory measures. The project advances, although it must still overcome additional authorizations before putting the first stone.
Thus the Guájares Central will work. The proposal will be built in the municipalities of Vélez de Benaudalla, El Pinar, Los Guájares and Padul. The system is simple on paper: Water will be pumped from the Rules reservoir to a upper raft to release it in times of greater demand, generating clean electricity.
The installation will have the capacity to produce 1,022 GWh a year, sufficient to supply hundreds of thousands of homes. The works will not be minor: it is expected to dig more than 246,000 cubic meters of material, 1.5 km pipes and an execution period close to five years.
More than 400 million euros at stake. According to the economist, Banco Santander advises the group in the search for investor partners who co -finance the work. The movement arrives at a key moment for the holding company: the group has reduced its debt from 1,500 to 120 million since 2017, after selling participations in Ohla, Ferroglobe and Fertial, and looks for projects with which to reinforce its financial repositioning.
A controversy in progress. The project is not free of criticism. Deputy Granada Alejandra Durán, deputy spokesman for Andalusia and leader of Podemos, has shown her frontal rejection. According to Europa Press, it warns of erosion risks and slope landslides, in addition to the possible condition of protected species such as the real eagle, the perdict eagle or the grown vulture.
Durán also alerts the felling of “thousands of trees, shrubs and native scrublands,” recalls that part of the affected land coincides with the soil on fire of the Guájares and accuses the administrations of prevailing private interests on the general interest. He even speaks of a “water theft” that would harm the farmers in the area.
Spain and the urgency of storage. The debate is not exclusive to Granada. Spain already produces about half of its electricity with renewables, but the intermission of wind and solar forces to look for storage solutions. The pumping plants have become authentic “hydraulic batteries”, capable of saving surpluses to release them when they do the most missing.
In October alone, this type of facilities generated 4,747 GWh, 10% more than in 2022. Although the installed power has barely grown in the last 15 years (3,337 MW), experts agree that the reversible pumping will be decisive to stabilize the system and contain light prices.
Between need and resistance. The Guájares Central clearly reflects the tension of the energy transition: the urgency of guaranteeing storage against the environmental and social risks of this type of works.
With the favorable day in his hand, now he has to decide if Villar Mir assumes the investment and makes Granada epicenter of renewables in Spain. The question is whether this great “water battery” will remain as a progress engine or as an example of the excesses of the energy transition.
Imagen | Freepik
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