Final approval of the Special Plan for the Implementation of the Ekienea Photovoltaic Park in Armiñón, Araba.

On 17 January 2024, the final approval of the Special Plan for the Ekienea photovoltaic park in Lacorzana, in the municipality of Armiñón, Araba, was published in the BOTHA. This is the culmination of a long process of processing the urban planning document that allows the implementation of photovoltaic use on undeveloped land.

The purpose of the Special Plan is to outline and organise an area of 170 hectares to enable the implementation of a photovoltaic solar installation with an estimated production horizon of 160,000 MWh/year.

The area of the special plan on undeveloped land is located in the area known as Lacorzana in the municipality of Armiñón, Araba. It covers an area of 170 hectares, the boundaries of which are:

• - To the north, undeveloped land in the municipality of Ribera Baja.
• - To the south, the area is bounded by the River Zadorra, near the mouth of the River Ebro, and by the Lacorzana Lagoon.
• - To the west, it coincides with the boundary between the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and the Autonomous Community of Castile-Leon, and more specifically with the Bayas industrial estate in the municipality of Miranda de Ebro.
• - To the east, the area is bounded by the rural nucleus of Lacorzana and by the rural road leading to Ribaguda.

The promoter of the proposal is Ekienea, a company in which Eólicas de Euskadi (Iberdrola), the Ente Vasco de la Energía (Basque Government), Enargi Araba (Provincial Council of Alava) and KREAN have a stake.

The project is part of the Basque energy policy guidelines for 2030, given that it will bring environmental benefits in terms of sustainable development and the fight against climate change. The planned production of approximately 160,000 MWh per year would be equivalent to the electricity consumption of 47,500 homes in a year, which would avoid the emission of around 38,660 tonnes of CO2.

The Special Plan has been subject to an Ordinary Strategic Environmental Assessment. Various studies have been carried out and corrective and compensatory measures have been planned and included in the Strategic Environmental Study, such as:

• - Agro-livestock project to compensate for the occupation of land of high agrological value.
• - Archaeological study to guarantee the protection of areas catalogued as archaeological presumption and heritage elements.
• - Faunistic studies: avifauna, herpetofauna and odonates in the surroundings of the Lacorzana Lagoon. The creation of ponds for amphibians is planned.
• - Environmental restoration proposal, which envisages the creation of a naturalised strip as an ecological corridor between the Lacorzana lagoon and the banks of the river Zadorra (ZEC ES2110010).
• - Hydraulic study.

The drafting of the Special Plan began in 2020, and its processing has taken almost four years. With the final approval of the Special Plan, an important milestone has been reached for obtaining the necessary permits that will allow construction of the Ekienea photovoltaic park in Lacorzana to begin.