In Euskadi they believe they have the solution to the neighbors’ opposition to wind power. Let them take 7% of your profits

On May 18, the pre-booking period opened. In less than 24 hours, 51 residents of Rioja Alavesa had already put their money in the wind farm that no one wanted to have next door. Seven percent guaranteed annual profitability. Minimum investment, 1,000 euros. Project name: Gure Haizea. Our wind.

Euskadi has not inaugurated a wind farm for twenty years. The last one came into operation in 2006. For two decades, projects have multiplied on paper and have gotten stuck in the courts, in the allegations commissions and in neighborhood assemblies. The result is that the autonomous community, which has a world-class wind industry, produces only 7.9% of its electricity with its own renewable sources. The Basque Government’s objective is to reach 15% in 2030. To achieve this, it needs the residents of the affected municipalities to say yes. And so far, the majority have said no.

The park that no one wanted to have next to. The Labraza wind farm, in the Alava municipality of Oion, is under construction. Forty megawatts of power and an investment of 59 million euros. When it comes into operation, it will produce around 99,679 megawatt hours per year, enough to supply around 30,000 homes, and will avoid the emission of approximately 16,300 tons of CO₂. It will also increase the installed wind capacity throughout the Basque Country by 26%, according to data from Iberdrola and of Basque Energy Entity (EVE)the public agency of the Basque Government that co-manages the project through its joint venture with Iberdrola, called Aixeindar.

What makes Labraza more than just another wind farm is what this joint venture has just announced: for the first time in Euskadi, citizens will be able to participate in the financing of the project and collect interest for it. The chosen formula is crowdlendinga type of crowdfunding in which individuals lend money to a project and receive a guaranteed annual interest in return. In this case, 7%. The platform that will manage the process is Fundeen, the first Spanish investment platform in renewable energies authorized by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). The maximum term is three years. The minimum contribution, 1,000 euros; the maximum, 100,000. The total objective of citizen financing: three million euros.

As reported by the Basque Energy Entitythe pre-booking period opened on May 18. In just 24 hours, 51 small investors had already covered 60% of the objective, according to data published by ElDiario.es. The final financing will be formalized in June.

The problem that profitability tries to solve. The rejection of wind farms in Spain—and in Euskadi in particular—does not arise out of nowhere. It has concrete and legitimate roots. The reasons for rejection They are diverse: the landscape impact of wind turbines in mountainous areas with strong natural and cultural value, criticism related to noise, the effect on birds and ecosystems, and above all the feeling that large electricity companies obtain benefits while municipalities receive little real compensation. In Álava, more than 100 renewable initiativeswith an especially high concentration that has triggered neighborhood alarms.

The underlying issue is more structural. 84% of Spain’s renewable energy is produced in rural areas and in so-called emptied Spain, but without that money stay in the territory. The municipalities assume the visual, sound and landscape impact. Energy travels to cities. The benefits go to the company headquarters. That energy inequality is the core of a problem which has manifested itself in different ways in different territories: Aragon tried to keep its energy surplus, Galicia proposed half-price electricity for residents of municipalities with renewable installations, and now Euskadi is trying 7% profitability for its citizens.

The proposal of crowdlending try to attack exactly that gap. If the neighbors also make money from the wind, the equation changes. The park stops being an infrastructure imposed by someone from outside and becomes, at least partially, an own investment. That is why the name in Basque matters: Gure Haizea It’s not just a brand, it’s an argument.

More than money, also cheaper electricity. The mechanism is simple in its conception. Through the platform Fundeeninterested citizens can enter the Labraza project as lenders: they contribute between 1,000 and 100,000 euros for a maximum of three years and receive a guaranteed 7% annual interest regardless of what the park produces. They do not buy shares or become owners, but rather creditors of the project. It’s an important distinction: the risk is lower than in direct investing, but so is the control.

The initiative is primarily aimed at the inhabitants of Labraza, Barriobusto, Oion and Rioja Alavesa, although it is also open to the entire historic territory of Álava. The objective, according to EVEis to always prioritize investors from the areas closest to the park.

It is not limited to financial performance. The inhabitants of the Administrative Boards of Labraza and Barriobusto They will also be entitled to a special electricity rate once the park comes into operation, and throughout its useful life. The package also includes up to 90 local jobs during construction, an initial income of around 1.2 million euros for the municipal coffers when the works start and about 230,000 euros annually in taxes and fees. To explain the details, Iberdrola and EVE organized in-person information sessions in Labastida, Oion and Laguardia during the month of May.

Spain already has precedents. What Euskadi presents as new is not exactly its own invention. The model of crowdlending for wind farms has already been tested in other Spanish communities, always with the same platform—Fundeen—and with a profitability also set at around 7%.

• In the Canary Islands, the company Ayagaures Medioambiente promoted the Renove II wind farm in Agüimes (Gran Canaria) with exactly this scheme. More than 45 investors, prioritizing the residents of the municipality, contributed 1,080,000 euros, 20% of the total budget of just over five million. The success was such that the company is already working on a second project with the same model.
• In Navarra, the Montes de Cierzo wind farm of the Norwegian Statkraft also opened to citizen investment via Fundeen. Local residents and Navarrese residents have contributed more than 2.7 million euros in an operation that allows up to five million in local co-investment, making it one of the largest operations of this type associated with a wind farm in Spain.
• In the Balearic Islands, Fundeen launched citizen financing of the photovoltaic parks of Son Sunyer and Las Andrevas, in Palma and Sant Llorenç, starting exclusively with the residents of the affected municipalities, later expanding to the neighboring towns, then to the entire Balearic Islands, and finally to the entire State.

The questions that the model does not answer. The initiative is striking and precedents support it, but it is advisable not to confuse enthusiasm with evidence. There are questions that the available data still do not answer.

• The first is the most obvious: does the 7% profitability convert a real opponent into a defender of the project, or does it simply attract those who were already willing to invest? The honest answer is that we don’t know yet. The fact that 51 investors covered 60% of the objective in 24 hours is a success in demand, but it says nothing about whether those who invested were former opponents or simply citizens with savings seeking profitability.
• The second question has to do with scale. The three million from crowdlending represent just 5% of the total investment in the Labraza park, which amounts to 59 million. The remaining 95% is provided by Iberdrola and the Basque Government. It is not a Danish-style cooperative model, where in some cases citizens own the majority of the park. It is a financial complement with real profitability, but it does not change who makes the decisions or who controls the project.
• The third question is systemic: is neighborhood rejection a problem of economic incentives or of real participation in decisions? Galicia has had problems with social acceptance despite trying to compensate with discounts on the bill. The Superior Court of Xustiza of Galicia paralyzed 59 of 64 wind projects following lawsuits from environmental and neighborhood groups—although the Supreme Court later unblocked them—. Money helps, but it is not always enough.

The bet and what is at stake. The Basque Government has a declared objective: to go from 7.9% to 15% of its own electricity generation with renewables before 2030. To achieve this, it needs to add 450 megawatts of new wind and photovoltaic capacity, plus another 300 for self-consumption. Labraza contributes 40 megawatts. There are many more to be achieved in a territory where opposition remains intense and where the rejection of wind farms has begun to generate real financing problems for the community’s energy development.

The model Gure Haizea It is, in that context, a real-time experiment. If it works—if it demonstrates that involving neighbors financially reduces conflict and speeds up deadlines—it can become a template that can be replicated in the dozens of Spanish municipalities where renewable projects have been stuck for years. If it does not work, we will have to find another answer to the question that no government has been able to fully resolve: how to fairly distribute the costs and benefits of the energy transition between those who produce it and those who consume it.

For now, the paradox remains. The movement that learned to say no has a 7% offer on the table to say yes. The wind continues to blow in Oion. And the question is no longer just whether the wind turbines will spin, but who is going to keep the benefits.

Image | Iberdrola

Xataka | Every year millions of birds die because of wind turbines. The solution: paint them like poisonous snakes