16 December 2020
Source: A Planeta
A Planeta together with IberTrolas, which have been following Iberdrola for years where its headquarters are located, the Basque Country, together with the Mexican Regional Movement for the Defense of Water and Land (MODAT) (attached to the National Coordinator Plan de Ayala – National Movement (CN-PAMN)) of Mexico, present the report “La insolación mexicana de Iberdrola” (Iberdrola’s Mexican insolation – Socio-environmental impacts of Iberdrola’s photovoltaic mega-parks in Mexico”).
The main conclusion is that despite being a renewable energy project (photovoltaic) and being used in this way by Iberdrola, this project violates basic rights of the affected communities such as those of information and decision making. On the other hand, as in many other cases, this project will not benefit the community energetically either, and at an economic level its contribution is also insignificant. With this we have that Iberdrola, in this project, despite being renewable, reproduces the same unacceptable practices used in others, such as its five wind farms in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca. Another aspect continually dennounced about Iberdrola is the use of these renewable projects for greenwashing: while its Mexican production is based on gas with an installed capacity of 5,546 MW of combined cycles, this solar plant will only produce 200 MW. However, the use of space is enormous, and above all, it’s used for other purposses and priorities, others than the community’s ones.
With this report we want to contribute to the resistance of the community of Ocotepec with contrasted and contextualized information, and, at the same time, we aim to spread the case. We do so weeks after another energy conflict happened, also starring Spanish companies, the Proyecto Integral Morelos. With this we also want to add this case to the others to complete the view of energy and economic plundering of the Ibex-35 in Mexico.
