The renewable facility, promoted by Ekienea - a company formed by Iberdrola (75%), the Basque Government through the Ente Vasco de la Energía (18%), the engineering firm KREAN (5%) and the Provincial Council of Álava (2%), will be located in Armiñón (Álava) and will have a total capacity of 125.89 megawatts (MW). The investment will amount to 70 million euros and will create 300 jobs in the construction peaks and will have different projects to promote coexistence with biodiversity.
The plant will generate clean, local energy to supply around 47,500 homes.
Ekienea has obtained a favourable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the development of the largest photovoltaic park in the Basque Country. The renewable facility is a project promoted by the company Ekienea, which is 75% owned by Iberdrola together with the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), the Basque Government's energy agency (18%), KREAN (Mondragón Group, 5%) and the Provincial Council of Alava (DFA/AFA) (2%).
The largest solar park in the Basque Country, which surpasses Ekian, -the solar park located in Ribera Baja and inaugurated in 2020 with 24 MW of installed capacity-, has urban planning permission, when it obtains the rest of the necessary permits, will be located in the municipality of Armiñón in Alava and will have a total capacity of 125.89 megawatts (MW). In this way, it will almost triple the current solar generation capacity in the Basque Country, which is close to 50 MW installed on the ground. There are 150 MW on rooftop in self-consumption format.
Ekienea will generate clean, home-grown energy to supply approximately 47,500 homes and avoid the emission of 12,400 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year. The planned investment for this photovoltaic project, provided it obtains a long-term sales contract, will be 70 million euros.
Ekienea will also have around 231,000 photovoltaic modules and will produce some 155 GWh/year, and it is estimated that up to 300 jobs will be created during peak construction periods.
In addition to the jobs required for the installation of the plant, the set-up will create jobs for management and maintenance tasks, to which must be added the economic benefit for the local councils where it is located, meaning that the implementation of Ekienea will help the economic development of the area.
Ekienea will extend over 200 hectares, of which 100 will be occupied by the photovoltaic plant and the other 100 by land allocated for environmental compensation and preservation of forest areas.
This new renewable energy facility will be connected to the ST Puentelarrá junction by means of a 17 km 132 kV line and will also be a great opportunity for the projection of the technological solutions of the Basque companies that will be the driving force behind the project.
Coexistence with biodiversity
The largest photovoltaic plant in the Basque Country, Ekienea, will have different projects to promote coexistence with biodiversity, including a 150 metre buffer strip to be measured from the edge of the lagoon, reforested with gall oak and shrub stratum, an ecological corridor reforested with gall oak between the Lacorzana Lagoon and the photovoltaic plant and a 15-hectare ecological corridor between the Lacorzana Lagoon and the banks of the river Zadorra, which will be reforested with ash grove-aliseda.
Three ponds will also be created in areas -to be determined- in the ecological corridor around the Lacorzana Lagoon and shelters for herpetofauna (accumulation of stones, logs, etc...).
Ekienea includes a proposal for diversified ecological agro-livestock farming:
- Introduction of sheep farming
- Fruit tree plantation
- Bio-intensive horticultural area (in multi-tunnel greenhouses and in the open air)
- Plot for fodder crops.
