The electricity multinational, through its subsidiary Enel Green Power Spain, inaugurated its first solar plants in Castilla la Mancha a few days ago. They are Minglanilla I and IIlocated in the municipal area of Minglanilla and Graja de Iniesta (Cuenca), that will become a benchmark thanks to the sustainability initiatives that will be implemented once it has come into operation.
Minglanilla I and II not only produce clean energy, but also pioneering projects such as the saffron cultivation between solar panels, the installation of a solar apiary applying the latest innovation and the insect shelter that will be developed involving schools, associations and companies in the area to achieve registration in the Guinness record.
“Castilla la Mancha is a land rich in renewable generation, and at Endesa we want to be present in the development of this technology in the region and we are doing so by betting on projects to reach 1 GW of installed power and planned investments of around 1,000 million euros”, Rafael González, Endesa’s General Director of Generation, has pointed out that “This renewable development combines wind and solar technology with social projects capable of creating value in the areas where we develop them”.
The solar plants called Minglanilla I of 49.87 MW and Minglanilla II of 49.81 MW These are the first plants using this technology that the company has launched in Castilla la Mancha. These plants will have an annual production of 175 GWh per year, equivalent to the energy consumption of Albacete and Cuenca for one year, also avoiding the emission into the atmosphere of approximately 143,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Employment and innovative projects
Endesa has invested 72 million euros in the construction of these new renewable infrastructures in which safety with zero accidents has prevailed, and collaboration with local companies to carry out the work that has employed more than 250 people during its construction, promoting the local employability of unemployed people from the Region of La Manchuela Cuenca. To this end, Endesa, within the framework of its Shared Value Creation plan, has given training courses in solar panel assembly and operation and maintenance of solar installations that benefit 83 unemployed people in the region and its surroundings, thus promoting employment in a sector that is increasingly booming and for which specialized personnel are needed.
And with the objective of integration in the territory, Endesa has also had the collaboration of the Association of Alzheimer’s and other dementias “Valle del Cabriel” from Minglanilla who has participated in the assembly of screws for the solar modules, and to whom 20 laptops have been donated in order to continue developing the important social work that this association carries out.
This donation is joined by the one that will soon be made to the local community of part of the material used in the work. In this sense, they will be donated to the municipalities of Graja de Iniesta and Minglanilla the 2 photovoltaic kits used to cover part of the energy needs during the work and 4 defibrillators from the site camp, drinking fountains will also be donated to Graja de Iniesta to cover the needs of the wild fauna around the plants. All this material is part of Enel Green Power Spain’s “Sustainable Construction Site” model in all its constructions.
These donations are also joined by the implementation of self-consumption energy measures in the Town Halls of Graja de Iniesta and Minglanilla. Endesa, through its subsidiary Endesa X, will carry out a energy consumption analysis of the main municipal buildings, in order to develop a strategy for energy saving and consumption efficiency.
Now that the plants are in operation, the pioneering alliances with the local community will become effective to develop primary sector initiatives that allow sharing of land use. In this regard, Endesa, together with the local company Bealar SL from Motilla de Palancar, a national and international benchmark in the production and marketing of saffron, will be in charge of carrying out a pilot project to cultivate this product with the La Mancha designation of origin. This pilot will be joined by a mentoring initiative through the Savia Generation where people over 50 years of age and with experience in this type of traditional cultivation will supervise the use of the product by groups at risk of social exclusion.
Under the solar panels will also be placed smart hives. It will be the local company Nómadas de la Miel de Minglanilla, which thanks to the fifth generation of beekeepers who develop different products from their hives in an artisan way, will apply the latest innovation by placing a series of sensors that will allow monitoring parameters that influence the production cycle. of the bees
And along with the bees, the sheep thanks to extensive grazing within the perimeter of the photovoltaic plants. Miguel Ángel is the third generation of shepherds from Villarta and the only survivor in the area working with sheep. His sheep will now graze between the solar panels of the Endesa plants, allowing the natural clearing of the land.
All these projects make Endesa’s solar plants pioneers in the integration of the primary sector with technology, and will be the path that the company will follow in renewable development in Castilla la Mancha.
