The Balearic energy ministry has opened the plan for a battery storage plant in Santa Maria to public consultation. Like other proposed sites for storage in Mallorca, this one is generating controversy.
The company behind the Santa Maria project is Atlántica Energía Sostenible España. The Spanish subsidiary of the UK-based Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, this is the same company which presented a project in Pollensa. That is moving ahead despite strong opposition, its scale dwarfed by what is planned for Santa Maria.
The size of the Pollensa plant is around 3,000 square metres, which is roughly the same as a project that was proposed for Santa Maria last autumn and was unanimously rejected at a council meeting. The latest plan is for a plant of 27,086 square metres on rustic land between Santa Maria and Consell and with an investment of €19.2 million.
The application to the energy ministry is being processed as a potential project of regional energy interest, a classification which the company is seeking for Pollensa and would override local obstacles. It has prior administrative authorisation and an environmental impact assessment.
Opposition from environmentalists and others centres on the use of rustic land for this type of development. It is argued that it should be on land that is already designated as industrial. This been the case in Pollensa; a more suitable alternative would be the industrial estate.
The 30-day public consultation phase will now gauge how much opposition there is to the latest proposal.