Andorra hopes to go from ‘black’ to ‘green’ with Endesa’s millionaire plan
Endesa has won the great battle for renewable energies in Andorra, at least provisionally. The great energy treasure that was left an orphan after the closure two years ago of the thermal plant in Andorra, in the form of 1,202 megawatts (MW) of electricity generation capacity, will end up in the hands of the same owner of the plant that burned the black minerals, with which the splendid past that the mining town had in the last four decades was chiseled. What was for a long time the richest municipality in Aragon is now going through low hours but hopes to live a second chance thanks to the millionaire plan proposed by the electricity company, which could approach 2,000 million euros of investment, a package of projects that promises to generate 300 direct permanent jobs in the long term with activities with which to make the leap to a green economy. The actions go beyond the installation of wind and photovoltaic parks by including links linked to new technologies, the industry, agriculture, R&D or green hydrogen.
Expectations are high, but the process remains fraught with questions. The first of them will learn the details of the accompanying projects that Endesa submitted to the public tender opened by the Ministry of Ecological Transition at the end of 2021 for the concession of the energy evacuation capacity of the so-called Mudéjar fair transition electrical node. But what is most worrying in the area is that the contest ends judicialized for possible resources and lawsuits presented by one or more of the other ten applicants who appeared at the call. Various sources knowledgeable about the process see “very likely” that this begins taking into account that it is a highly litigated sector and that great energy titans such as Iberdrola, Naturgy (Natural Gas), Acciona or EDP, with economic and legal margin to undertake this path.
Some preliminary assessments collected by this newspaper among the applicants point to this scenario. Sources from one of the large companies that entered the renewable bid acknowledged their discomfort. “We are surprised that all the megawatts are given to those who already had them. So many saddlebags weren’t needed for this trip.” they pointed out, while they branded as “rare” and “not very transparent” the way of communicating the decision. Since Forestaliaanother of the candidate companies avoided making a statement until knowing the “criteria and the scale.
Deadlines to appeal the resolution
The deadline to file an optional appeal for reconsideration before the technical table of the ministry is one month Since the publication of the resolution in the State official newsletter. Alternatively, the award may be challenged directly before thea Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National High Courtl within a period of two months without both appeals being simultaneous.
From the ministry, iron has always been removed from the possible judicialization, which they trust will not come due to the guarantee nature of the procedure. “Renewable investors are aware that we have a lot at stake in Andorra and they will have an impartial referee»Laura Martín, director of the Just Transition Institute (ITJ), assured in an interview with this newspaper at the end of 2021.
The keys to the award
For its part, Endesa officially confirmed yesterday that it has been the provisional winner – through its renewable subsidiary Enel Green Power España – of the connection right for 953 renewable megawatts and the option to confirm up to 1,200 total MW of the bid. “We are very satisfied,” the company’s General Director of Generation, Rafael González, said in a statement. «Our commitment is for a project with a real future, which creates value in the local community, as we have always done where we have developed our industrial activity, concluded. He recalled that thanks to this strategy and his “experience” he has also won international competitions such as Pego in Portugal.
the heiress of the Aragonese ERZ, today in the hands of the Italian group Enel, it was from the beginning of the process the strongest candidate to take the renewable cake. Get to know first-hand a territory in which has been around since the 1980s and also its possibilities of development. It started with an advantage because it already had the land and facilities of the old thermal plant, as well as the water concession. To this is added the economic solvency and technological capacity of the energy multinational and the progressive enrichment of the compensation plan that it held to continue being the leading actor in the future of the area.
All of this made it out one of the most solid options of the bid. This is how it was seen by most of the agents and local politicians consulted in the more than ten months that the award process has lasted. Some of the proposals submitted to the contest also generated some distrust for not being realistic. From there, the satisfaction that was breathed yesterday in the Andorran town hall and other municipalities such as Samper from Calanda or Hijar that their income will increase thanks to the location of Endesa’s renewable plants. Of course, the contained joy waiting for the concession by the Ministry for the Just Transition to be final.
Satisfaction in the town hall, misgivings in the DGA
“It is something that we have been waiting for a long time and that It is the salvation of Andorra. We begin to see the light of the future»he claimed Juan Ciércoles (PAR), second deputy mayor of the council, who applauded the election of Endesa, a company “that we know and that has been everything in the last 50 years for the municipality with very good results.”
“We are happy that the contest has finally been resolved, that it can mean the future that this area needs thanks to the accompaniment plan”, affirmed Alejo Galve, general secretary of the UGT in Teruel and councilor of Andorra for the PSOEwho defined the Endesa project as “powerful” and “hopeful”.
In the Andorran Business Association What is known about the investment plan of the electric company also sounds good. “With all the reservations we have to have until everything is confirmed, we are hopeful”, ensures robert miguel, president of this organization. «Because of the brushstrokes that we know of Endesa’s plan, we see that there may be a revival of the area, a second chance for a future of several decades”, he added.
From the Government of Aragon, however, the adjudication of the Mudejar knot has been accepted with little enthusiasm and misgivings. The counselor of economyPlanning and Employment, Martha Gastonyesterday showed the “maximum of respect” with the adopted resolution, but again regretted that “native projects have not had a place” in reference to the proposal presented by the local companies Forestalia and Térvalis, the latter in the hands of the Portuguese electricity company EDP.
It was the same message that I transferred Javier Lamban after learning that Endesa was the winner, a company with which the Aragonese president had already had strong tensions since he announced the closure of the thermal plant. «I would not have liked a participation of Aragonese companies. We miss that it has been left out of the final decision,” said Gastón, who defended that local firms have a “greater commitment to the territory and its people.”
The Endesa macroproject: hhybridization of renewables, green hydrogen and industry
Endesa especially highlights its “innovative character” in its project for Andorra by proposing the hybridization of renewable solar and wind projects, energy storage and the development of green hydrogen projects to “decarbonize the area’s industries in a real way”. These new energy installations will be installed in part on the land where the coal-fired power station used to be, which
This industrial development goes hand in hand, according to the company, with a social plan that has “the purpose of lasting over time”, with the creation of more than 3,500 jobs in the construction of the projects and 300 direct permanent jobs in the area for the operation of the facilities.
The investment, which could approach 2,000 million, will go to the construction of five solar and five wind plants in a hybridization regime supported by a storage system with batteries, which will make it possible to make the most of renewable production.
Additionally, an electrolyser will be installed that will allow the management of surpluses for the production of green hydrogen. In this sense, Endesa assures that “it is collaborating” with local companies in industries that manufacture components of the hydrogen renewable value chain.
Endesa will be able to have a training plan in place that will allow the professional recycling of people from the environment to sectors such as renewables. The proposal also includes primary and tertiary sector projects.