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Naturgy invests 57 million in the second wind farm in Extremadura and in its third photovoltaic plant in the region

PLASENCIA (CÁCERES), 27 Sep.

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Naturgy invests 57 million in the second wind farm in Extremadura and in its third photovoltaic plant in the region

PLASENCIA (CÁCERES), 27 Sep. (EUROPE PRESS) -

Naturgy will invest 57 million euros in the second wind farm in Extremadura --Merengue II-- and in its third photovoltaic plant in the community --Puerta del Jerte--, initiatives for which the first stone was laid this Tuesday in Plasencia (Caceres).

The construction of both projects will generate 860 direct and indirect jobs and, when they come into operation, their production will be equivalent to the annual consumption of 54,500 homes, with Extremadura representing the autonomous community that currently concentrates the most new Naturgy renewable projects in Spain.

The president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, and the president of Naturgy, Francisco Reynés, attended the first stone laying ceremony, accompanied by the mayor of Plasencia, Fernando Pizarro, and the Minister of Ecological Transition and Sustainability, Olga Garcia.

The General Director of Renewables, New Businesses and Innovation of Naturgy, Jorge Barredo; the general director of Sustainability, Reputation and Institutional Relations, Jordi García Tabernero, and the general director of Industry, Samuel Ruiz, together with other representatives of Naturgy and the administrations of Extremadura.

Merengue II is the second wind farm in the autonomous community and Puerta del Jerte is the third photovoltaic plant that Naturgy is building in Extremadura. Both facilities will make it possible to displace the use of other sources of conventional electricity generation, helping to reduce more than 120,000 tons of CO2 per year. During the useful life of both projects, estimated at 30 years, the emission of more than 1.8 million tons of CO2 per year will be avoided.

During his speech, Reynés highlighted Naturgy's objective to triple its installed capacity in renewable energies by 2025.

"Extremadura has shown that it has a firm commitment to the energy transition and has clearly opted to advance in the installation of wind and solar energy, which is why it is also strategic for Naturgy and this is where our company concentrates the most new renewable projects in Spain", has pointed out.

With a total of 11 wind turbines, and an approximate investment of 41 million euros, the Merengue II wind farm will have a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW). It will produce 127.9 gigawatt hours (GWh) annually, and will avoid the annual emission of nearly 81,500 tons of CO2.

For its part, the Puerta del Jerte plant will consist of 77,868 modules, and will involve an approximate investment of 16 million euros. With a power of 30 MW, it will generate 62 GWh per year, avoiding the emission of almost 39,500 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

In a press release, Naturgy highlighted that Extremadura is a region of "high strategic value" for the company. Thus, in addition to the two facilities in Plasencia whose first stone was laid this Tuesday, the energy multinational is building another photovoltaic plant, Las Jaras, located in the municipalities of La Albuera and Badajoz, with an installed capacity of 50 MW.

This installation will produce approximately 122.9 GWh/year of energy, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 35,200 homes, and will prevent the emission of nearly 78,300 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.

In addition, the Miraflores photovoltaic plant, in Castuera, is already undergoing tests and will come into operation before the end of the year. This plant has an installed capacity of 22 MW and will produce around 47 GWh of energy per year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 13,500 homes.

Naturgy also has other projects in various stages of processing, totaling another 450 MW. On the one hand, the photovoltaic solar plants of Los Naipes, Los Naipes II and El Encinar I, located in Badajoz, which have an installed capacity of 50 MW each and whose construction is scheduled to start before the end of the year.

On the other hand, the Campo de Arañuelo photovoltaic plant, with 300 MW and the one with the highest power that the company is currently processing in Spain.

For his part, the Chairman of the Board, Guillermo Fernández Vara, pointed out that the region is today "vanguard" in Spain in the development of cheap energy, renewable energy, for which it is "vanguard of the present and the future ".

"Energy is going to be at the center of our lives and is part of our occupations and our concerns, due to the change that is taking place in the world", he asserted, while defending the installation of this energy in the region as a form of sustainable progress, which is "already" attracting projects.

In the act of laying the first stone, Vara has stressed that it is the consequence of a great "much deeper" change and has alluded to the vertiginous changes of recent times. Among them, he has cited climate change and has opted for a change of model. "We must stop living with energies that punish the planet and change to energies that are part of, help and are the best collaborators with the planet", he pointed out.

In addition to the environmental component, he also mentioned the economic one. The rise in the electricity bill is an example, he has pointed out, and the "only way" to make it cheaper is "to go from expensive to cheap energies, the rest are patches".

In this sense, he pointed out that those who most need to lower their energy costs, along with families, are companies and large industrial projects, he said, they are beginning to look "where energy is going to cost less".

Cheaper energy production, it has influenced, is not only going to allow a tool to fight against climate change to have cheaper energy in the future, but also to attract industry, something that the region has been "pursuing a lifetime" and sees that projects are now arriving because it is "a benchmark in Spain and Europe in the development of renewable energy".

Vara has defended the installation of this energy in the region because, according to the national and regional Energy and Climate Plan, "when everything is finished, only 0.8 percent of the territory of Extremadura will be occupied", for which he has advocated for that those who are against the changes "do not resort to demagoguery with it".

"We have taken advantage of the opportunity of the changes, for the first time in history, the industry is looking for what the region has and we are going to be able to have a certain 'historical revenge,' because we will see people from other places come to work here, just as that those from here went to other areas," he asserted.

Fernández Vara has also alluded to the war in Ukraine and has pointed out that, moreover, it is an "energy war". "Putin, in addition to throwing bombs, is playing with the gas tap", which is why he has considered that the best way to fight is to defend wind and photovoltaic energy. "There is no better way to win the war in the 21st century than to have and be energetically sovereign and Europe, unfortunately, is not," he pointed out.

The next challenge to be competitive, he pointed out, is the manufacture of the components of this type of energy in the region. Extremadura, he has detailed, is one of the places in Spain where "more transformers, more electrical turrets, more galvanizing and soon more photovoltaic panels are manufactured".

For this reason, in order to remain competitive, he has advocated that "they let us fly, work, do things that are in our hands" and that "the future of the region does not depend on what others can do for us".

Thus, in this change and transformation of the region, the energy companies are necessary cooperators so that "everyone does well", the Board has pointed out.