Arada Solar Modifies Location to Avoid Sensitive Urban Areas

The Statkraft photovoltaic macro-plant adjusts its layout to respect the Jardines de San Luis PAI in Nules and the Golf Subirana in Alquerías del Niño Perdido.

Generic image of a large photovoltaic plant under the sun.
IA

Generic image of a large photovoltaic plant under the sun.

The Arada Solar photovoltaic macro-plant has slightly relocated its route northward, freeing up land for the STN ceramic group's logistics center and avoiding sensitive urban areas in Nules and Alquerías del Niño Perdido.

This modification, the fourth since the project's initial presentation in July 2021, implies a significant change in the plant's configuration. The new design will respect the Jardines de San Luis PAI in Nules, which plans for the construction of 1,200 homes, and the Golf Subirana PAI in Alquerías del Niño Perdido, whose development was liquidated in 2023 but could be resumed in the future.
The relocation now concentrates the plant's implementation in the municipalities of La Vall d’Uixó and Xilxes, excluding Moncofa. Furthermore, the project reduces its surface area from 305.97 to 300.5 hectares and decreases the number of photovoltaic modules from 338,772 to 210,780. This leads to an adjustment in the installed power, which goes from 141.44 to 139.8 megawatts, and a reduction in the budgeted investment from 95.5 to just over 79 million euros.
78% of the plant's surface area will now be located on land in La Vall d’Uixó and the remaining 22% in Xilxes. This relocation also requires redesigning the medium-voltage trenches to adapt them to crossing existing infrastructures such as gas networks, telecommunications, or livestock trails. The installation will have a total of 41 accesses, the main one from the N-340 road.
This new planning is the result of a predominantly unfavorable institutional context for the project. Despite the support from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function and some municipalities like Betxí, most institutions prioritized STN's logistics center when both projects overlapped. The Diputación, municipalities such as Xilxes, La Vall d’Uixó, or Alquerías del Niño Perdido, and energy supply companies like Nedgia and Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes rejected Arada Solar due to environmental impact concerns. Even the company Cales de la Plana opposed the photovoltaic macro-plant for encroaching on its two mining concessions, while the irrigation communities of La Vall d’Uixó and Vila-real warned of the loss of many hectares of agricultural cultivation.