Hydrogen and solar energy mean cutting down 13,500 trees
The expansion of the industrial area of Sines to accommodate four large industrial projects planned for the region will involve the deforestation of a total area of 74.8 hectares. This information is contained in the technical summary of the deforestation project put out for public consultation by Aicep Global Parques, the public company that owns the land.
This area is divided into four lots that will be occupied by two projects from the Madoqua consortium, one for hydrogen and the other for ammonia, the Calb battery factory and the solar panel park associated with the Repsol Polímeros industrial reconfiguration. These are all international investments linked to the energy transition and classified as PIN (potential national interest) and represent total investments of more than 4,000 million euros (Calb — 2,000 million, Madoqua — 1,000 and 500 million euros and Repsol — 670 million euros).
Map showing the planned location of large industrial projects in Sines
The environmental impact study that has now entered into public consultation only analyses the impacts of one of these lots, 1A3.4, which will be occupied by the installation of photovoltaic panels that will supply Repsol's industrial complex. However, the area covered of 30.27 hectares will also allow “the creation of access to important projects of national interest (PIN) such as Madoqua NH3, which will produce green ammonia on an industrial scale, from green hydrogen, MDQP2X for the production of green hydrogen and Calb — Lithium Battery Production Industry”.
The industrial projects of the Chinese company Calb and Repsol Polímeros have already obtained a favorable environmental impact study, but in the case of the industrial reconfiguration of the Spanish chemical company, called the Alba project, the solar park with a capacity of 6.5 megawatts (MW) was missing to power the hydrogen production unit by electrolysis.
In the area to be deforested, 12,415 trees were identified to be felled, mainly pine trees, in addition to 1,034 cork oaks, totaling 13,449. However, the technical summary of the environmental impact study admits that the project will involve the felling of a total of 2,475 cork oaks, of which only 10% are adults and the majority are young. The cork oak is a protected species and its felling requires compensation measures, with the planting of 11 hectares of specimens in a nearby area.
The universe of trees to be felled is dominated by maritime pines, with more than nine thousand specimens (most of which are adults). More than a thousand specimens of stone pines and around two thousand eucalyptus trees will also be affected.
The deforestation intervention will be carried out “in a phased manner depending on the needs for implementing new industrial and/or logistics facilities”.
This environmental assessment focuses on one of the four lots, since the deforestation of areas to be occupied by other industrial units has already been the subject of a specific study already approved — in the case of Calb — and will be the subject of another to be presented by Madoqua for its industrial projects. The land is located between the Repsol Polímeros facilities and also involves a new roundabout providing access to areas occupied by other projects.
According to the document presented by Aicep Global Parques, the “area to be deforested corresponds to land intended for the installation of industrial establishments, which has been unoccupied for decades due to the lack of investment, and which currently has a diverse vegetation cover composed mainly of stone and maritime pines, eucalyptus and cork oaks”.
The study considers that the main negative impacts are of “reduced significance” with the exception of the flora and vegetation indicator, which affects species with protected status. It highlights that the landscape in the area is already “strongly marked by the presence of several industrial and port infrastructures”.
And he argues that failure to deforest this lot “generates significant negative impacts on economic activities and on the national and European strategy to achieve the goals in terms of decarbonizing the economy, transforming Europe's energy system and combating climate change because, in its absence, it will not be possible to implement photovoltaic panels that are part of these policies and that will make an important contribution to decarbonization”.
In addition to the local environmental impacts, the development of these large projects for the Sines region is also forcing the reconfiguration and reinforcement of national capacities to supply electricity and water to that region of the country.
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