When the old power station in Alcanada (Alcudia) was purchased by the Council of Mallorca in November 2022, the acquisition from Endesa was supposed to have marked a new beginning and a strategic project for the future. The power station, which dates from the late 1950s, shut down completely in 1984, it having been replaced by the Es Murterar power station by Albufera.
The elections in 2023 brought about political change. Since then, the future of the power station has been up in the air. Alcudia Town Hall, with the backing of the Council and the Balearic Government, had been the main driving force for the Alcudia TechMar project. This was for an international centre for the blue economy and decarbonisation of the sea to feature, among other things, a University of the Balearic Islands research facility.
As things currently stand, there has been no advance on plans for the power station. The decontamination of the site, an essential first step, hasn't begun and there are no immediate signs that it will begin.
PSOE, now in opposition, have accused the government of a lack of interest in carrying out the plant's conversion and warns that €17.4 million of European funds are at risk. These are funds for both the Alcanada and the Es Murterar power stations; Es Murterar is due to be fully decommissioned by 2027. €4.2 million were reserved for the Alcudia TechMar project. Carles Bona of PSOE says that for this investment to be available, projects should ideally be completed by 2027 or 2029 at the latest.
On Tuesday, he presented a motion to parliament's finance committee, urging the government to accelerate all phases of the decontamination process; to report quarterly on the implementation of the funds; and to guarantee the Alcudia TechMar project.
The motion was defeated. Lourdes Cardona of the Partido Popular said that decontamination is still a strategic project, "but our priorities are the plans for ParcBit in Palma, the CentreBit in Menorca, and the one in Ibiza". "The government is not rejecting the Alcudia TechMar project, but decontamination comes first; the next step is to decide the intended use of the plant, and then to call a public tender to select the winning project."