A 50 megawatt (MW) electric power plant with biomass from energy crops in the Comarca de la Vera that will be located in an area of Campo Arañuelo (province of Cáceres) will generate 675 direct "green" jobs.
This figure of work will help to replace the "gray" jobs of construction that "no" will be able to be generated again in the amounts that were being registered before the crisis.
This has been pointed out by the president of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, at a press conference this Thursday in Mérida (Badajoz) to present the aforementioned project, promoted by 'Foresta Capital' and Corporación Empresarial Extremeña (CEX), and that will have an investment of 247 million euros (146 million in a factory and 101 million in the plantation necessary for the generation of energy).
The initiative, which will be able to start generating electricity in a period of between two and three years, will allow the production of 363,000 MWh / year and serve more than 80,000 homes, according to data provided by 'Foresta Capital' during the presentation.
EMPLOYMENT AND WEALTH
After the constitution of the company in charge of the project this Thursday, the president of the CEX, Manuel Amigo, has indicated that the initiative will include the cultivation of trees on 7,200 hectares of land that "not always" have been suitable for a "great production" and that, from now on, will allow "to change the landscape" of the area, at the same time as "integrating" the farmers of the same in the generation of employment and wealth through other types of projects based on non-traditional crops.
In turn, the CEO of the company Foresta Capital, Javier Arregui, has applauded the "support" of the regional government to "green" energy projects such as the one presented this Thursday, which he said "ensure work for many years".
ENERGY STRATEGY
For his part, the president of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, stressed that it is an initiative that is "an important source of employment for the so-called greens, and that they will replace the gray cement jobs that will not be able to all the employment they were giving a long time ago".
The initiative is framed, as he highlighted, in the energy strategy in Extremadura that with the horizon of 2020 tries to "tell people who lost their jobs that there is another niche to work in, that of clean energy".
In this sense, he explained that the plant aims to contribute to the "integration" of energy initiatives with farmers, "so that the field can remain viable", through the use of new energy sources that "complement" traditional crops, "without prejudice to food production".
Thus, he stressed that the initiative will generate "in the short term" labor, in addition to wealth, through the use of land "many of them today unproductive."
"We must be asking to see what others can do for us and we for others," said Fernández Vara, who insisted on the need for "each one to assume responsibilities" to "get out of the crisis."
OBJECTIVES
In turn, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Environment, José Luis Navarro, has indicated that the objective of the regional government is that "within three years Extremadura could be (generate) between 15 or 20 percent of all energy from biomass in Spain", through projects currently in a "very incipient" phase.
Navarro also explained that the generation of energy through poplar cultivation in this project is due to the fact that "all scientific studies" show that it is a species "perfectly integrated, which does not cause significant negative impacts on the soil and on the environment".
However, he also pointed out that currently "there is some project" of biomass in the community through eucalyptus, a crop that "is intended to be eliminated from Extremadura due to the scientifically proven, harmful effects it produces on the soil".
TOBACCO
Finally, on the possible use of land for the generation of crops that are used in the plant in a tobacco area such as Campo Arañuelo, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Juan María Vázquez has pointed out that tobacco "has a very wide and profitable route" and that its cultivation will be "complementary" to other types of products such as those offered by the 'Foresta Capital' project.
The project presented, as he said, "will not go against tobacco", a crop that, he added, "has already managed to have a future" once "all the unknowns have been overcome" that existed about it "a little more than a year ago". (EUROPA PRESS)
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