She was appointed General Director of Quality and Environmental Assessment for the Ecological Transition just six months ago and this Civil Engineer has had to work as a
plumber
to unclog the first major administrative plug caused by the avalanche of renewable projects presented in recent years.
Previously in the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Marta Gómez Palenque (Cuenca, 47 years old) is currently the head of the state department that assesses the environmental impact of proposed large wind and photovoltaic farms of more than 50 megawatts (MW) for decide which can go ahead with the process and which cannot.
Question.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition had 31 months to evaluate an avalanche of renewable files (a file can bring together several projects).
What has this meant for your department?
Reply.
We are not going to deny that the volume we have faced has overwhelmed us, it has disturbed us, but it has been a beautiful moment to face, because you feel part of everything that is happening, you are contributing to this need to deploy renewables.
Q.
How many files have finally been evaluated and how many have obtained a positive environmental impact statement to continue with their construction?
A.
There have been 202 files evaluated, of which 154 have been positive, 36 negative and 12 archived.
Q.
Is any of the files that had a deadline of January 25 still pending to be resolved?
R.
Not within the competence of the ministry.
There are autonomous communities that have publicly said that they have not been able to review all the files and there are still some projects of autonomous competence, connected to the distribution networks, that can obtain the resolution after January 25, taking into account the date on which they accepted the technical and economic conditions of the connection, according to the criteria of the CNMC.
Q.
How many megawatts do the 154 files positively evaluated by the Ministry represent?
R.
The total volume managed by the ministry has been 35,879 megawatts (MW) and the evaluation has been favorable for 27,943 MW, of which the majority, 24,752 MW, correspond to photovoltaic, 2,897 MW to wind and 294 MW to hybrid facilities .
But this does not end with the milestone of January 25, we have finished evaluating 202 files and now we have another 300 in our portfolio, with the expectation that entity packages will continue to enter.
Q.
With these 24,752 megawatts of photovoltaics, added to the more than 15,200 already in service, the current objective of this technology for 2030 would already be achieved without counting the parks managed by the autonomous communities.
How does this change the expected renewable goals?
A.
A positive environmental impact statement is not a direct passport to construction.
Administrative authorizations still have to be obtained, not only from the substantive body, from city councils, from hydrographic confederations, from cultural heritage, from the natural heritage of the autonomous communities... The developer still has a long way to go until he can build his project.
Having said that, we must also bear in mind that the European Commission and the European Union are raising all renewable targets due to the war in Ukraine, and Spain is going to increase theirs accordingly.
In addition, the goal is to reach CO₂ emissions neutrality by 2050 and the sooner the better.
A Civil Engineer by training, Marta Gómez previously worked as general director of the Circular Economy of Castilla-La Mancha.INMA FLORES (EL PAIS)
Q.
How many people have worked on the environmental assessment of these projects in the ministry?
R.
In total we will be about 50 people in the environmental assessment team.
We do not only work on renewable energy projects, we must also evaluate plans, programs and other projects.
What has been done is to plan the internal teams so that 90% of the staff of the General Sub-Directorate for Environmental Evaluation will go on to evaluate renewable energies.
Q.
These are the largest wind and photovoltaic projects above 50 megawatts that the ministry is evaluating.
Do you know what has happened in the different autonomous communities with the smaller projects that also had to be resolved by January 25?
A.
We have been talking with them throughout the entire process and we have a meeting planned for a week or two, but I don't know the final numbers.
Q.
76% of the files evaluated by your department have obtained a positive environmental declaration.
Is this percentage above or below the usual?
R.
It is within the usual.
It seems like a lot, but it must be taken into account that projects that obtain a positive declaration are normally modified until the environmental impact detected is minimized and the resolution can be issued.
In fact, we can be in 75% of projects that have undergone modifications.
There have been wind projects with 30 wind turbines that we have reduced to seven, and photovoltaic projects with the area reduced by half.
The environmental evaluation is a guarantee technical administrative procedure that is prolonged in time by these comings and goings.
That is why in the end we have resolved in the last month, because you have to be absolutely certain that the project can come out.
Q.
What do you think of the rejection of the large renewable projects that are emerging in different parts of the country due to their impact on the environment?
A.
Here we work with the maximum possible objectivity and environmental impacts are analyzed in accordance with our Environmental Assessment Law.
All the environmental declarations that have come out negative is because we are not sure that they will not generate an impact on the territory, those that come out positive we can assure that it will not occur.
Q.
But aren't these facilities innocuous?
A.
One aspect must be taken into account, in the projects evaluated corrective measures are put in place, compensatory measures are put in place and an environmental monitoring plan is required during construction and during operation.
If in these later phases any unforeseen impact appears, the project is subject to incorporating new measures that the autonomous community and we as a state environmental body establish.
This means that there is a guarantee that the project will not have an impact on the environment.
Obviously, subjectivity also enters here, but we evaluate with the maximum possible objectivity and the impacts are well studied.
Q.
Has the new simplified procedure that exempts some projects from environmental evaluation been applied?
R.
We have been applying a simplified procedure since Royal Decree 6/22, of March 2022. Spain was ahead of what was later approved in the EU due to the current situation and the need to accelerate the expansion of renewables.
But this procedure does not mean that it is not a guarantee.
It does not exempt the promoter from giving us an environmental impact study, a preliminary project and an executive summary where he tells us what impacts will be produced with his project in the environment and how he is going to alleviate them.
With this information, with the background that we have and with a consultation with the autonomous communities, we determine if the project can continue through this path of the environmental determination report or we send it to ordinary environmental evaluation.
Q.
Apart from the 154 renewable files that have obtained a positive ordinary declaration, how many projects have managed to pass this express processing without declaration?
R.
So far, both considering the milestone of January 25, and files submitted subsequently, 128 requests have been received to process with an environmental determination report and 33 have gone ahead (1,891 photovoltaic megawatts and 135 wind megawatts).
Of the rest, 30 have been rejected, 35 have withdrawn, 18 will undergo ordinary evaluation and 12 are still under analysis.
Q.
The new legislation approved now makes this procedure even more flexible for renewable projects.
Do you still think that the process is guaranteed?
R.
We cannot forget the current context, Europe is asking us for a deployment of renewable energies accelerated by the war in Ukraine and we have spent the last months of 2022 in a negotiation process that has been reflected in regulation 2022/2577.
This European regulation in its article three clearly establishes that renewable energy projects, their construction, their exploitation and their connection, are of superior public interest.
This means that the procedures can be relegated to the minimum expression.
The deployment of renewables is a priority need for all, but Spain has been the only Member State that has also claimed to ensure environmental balance, managing to include some of these considerations in the regulation.
Marta Gómez, at one point in the interview. INMA FLORES (EL PAIS)
Q.
Environmental evaluation technicians and ecologists have warned of the reduction of environmental guarantees in this express way and the suppression of the consultation of the projects to public information.
R.
This is not true at all, a prior consultation that was already done in Royal Decree 6/22 continues.
In any case, from the ministry, we are looking at how we are going to transmit this information so that it is accessible to all citizens and alleviate, as far as possible, this deficit.
In any case, environmental guarantees are not relaxed.
With the knowledge that we have, it is extremely difficult for any project to be approved in this way in an area of high environmental sensitivity, because the projects can go to an ordinary environmental evaluation if here we determine that there is a minimum impact on the territory.
Q.
Of the 154 renewable files that have favorably passed the ordinary environmental declaration, how many are in areas of high environmental sensitivity?
R.
You have to cross databases and the final projects that the promoters will deliver to obtain the construction permit are not yet ready.
There is a lack of procedures with various organizations that may reveal its infeasibility.
In any case, if they finally exist, they are a small minority.
Q.
Does that small minority have no environmental impact either?
R.
Most of the projects are located in areas of low sensitivity and those that we have seen are in areas of high ecological value, many suffer orientation variations and setbacks [area reduction] are made precisely to move them away from the spaces of greatest value .
Here we have made sure, as far as possible, that there are no effects on flora, fauna, or ecological corridors.
And in case there are conditions, for example, photovoltaics with steppe birds, then we have introduced compensatory measures.
We have come to establish that, for each hectare occupied by a photovoltaic plant, the promoter has to acquire three hectares in the same area to develop agri-environmental measures that recreate the habitat of birds.
Q.
With such a large volume of projects, is it possible that there is still no general map accessible to everyone with the precise location of all the projects that are being approved?
A.
Yes, it is true that we do not have that map.
I think it will be something that will come with time.
In any case, I insist that we do not know for sure whether all the projects that have obtained a positive environmental impact declaration are going to be built.
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