ARCHIVED - Cartagena bans solar power plants in a large area on Earth Overshoot Day

No industrial solar power generation permitted between Canteras and Isla Plana despite the need for ecological transition

Throughout Spain authorities are finding it hard to balance the need for more ecologically sustainable sources of energy to be used with the inevitability that this entails consequences which will not be to everyone’s liking, and in response to concerns over the “aesthetic effect” of solar power plants the Town Hall of Cartagena has announced this week that no such energy production facilities are to be permitted in the westernmost part of the large municipality.

This encompasses an area between Canteras on the outskirts of the city of Cartagena to Isla Plana and La Azohía close to the boundary with the municipality of Mazarrón, within which the only solar panels allowed will be those devoted to energy consumption in the homes or businesses where they are installed.

At the same time, rules are established to protect Birdlife Protection Zones and other “sensitive” areas from being invaded by solar panels.

These are all laudable moves to protect the environment of the west of Cartagena, which includes the nature reserve of Sierra de la Muela, Cabo Tiñoso and Roldán, but by an unhappy coincidence the announcement happened to come on Earth Overshoot Day, which this year fell on July 29.

To determine the date of Earth Overshoot Day for each year, Global Footprint Network calculates the number of days of that year that Earth’s biocapacity suffices to provide for humanity’s Ecological Footprint, and the remainder of the year corresponds to global overshoot. When the date was first calculated in 1970 it fell on December 30, indicating that the rate at which resources were being used was almost exactly the same as the rate at which they were being replenished.

By 2018 the date had been brought forward to as early as July 25, although it was a day later in 2019 and last year was pushed back almost a month to August 22 by the decrease in travel and energy consumption during the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, though, it has returned to the month of July, indicating that from now until the end of the year all resources used are in excess of the planet’s capacity to replenish them.

Although the need to protect certain landscapes is a valid cause, in the eyes of many the need to protect the entire planet overrides it. In this context, the policy adopted by the Town Hall of Cartagena regarding solar panels, which has meant at least one large solar power company being obliged to seek an alternative location for its next project, is to be praised for its contribution to maintaining elements of the local countryside, but is perhaps counter-productive in terms of the efforts being made to achieve ecological transition to the use of sustainable sources of energy.

The Town Hall’s commitment to ecological transition cannot be questioned – witness the replacement of a fifth of the local public bus fleet with more ecologically friendly vehicles – but sometimes the gains made must come at a price, and with so much unused land available in western Cartagena it is surprising that no viable location for solar power generation can be found.

Image 1: Archive

Image 2: Town Hall of Cartagena