Galicia

Galicia blocked 64 eólicos projects judicially. Now the Supreme Court has returned them to life

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In these last 15 years, wind energy in Galicia He has faced multitude of legal problems due to great social opposition. In fact, the Superior Court of Xustia de Galicia (TSXG) has suspended in repeated different occasions wind projects for environmental risk complaints. Finally, these conflicts have reached the Supreme Court, sitting a precedent in Spain. The sentence. The Supreme Court He has validated The environmental processing of the Xunta de Galicia, reactivating the 64 judicially blocked projects. The sentence has also reinforced the legality of administrative agreements, such as the Campelo wind farm in A Coruña. Also, how The confidential has had accessthe TS has rejected the idea that several wind farms that share infrastructure should be considered as a single project, thus simplifying the environmental evaluation. The origin. The conflict began by The expansion of wind farms that exceeded 200 meters high. According to the countryneighborhood and environmental groups argued that some of these parks were in sensitive areas and did not meet environmental guarantees. All this leads to the judicial situation to be further complicated by the lack of a final resolution, with more than 130 pending lawsuits until the end of 2024. A precedent. According to El Confidencial, The Superior Court of Xustiza de Galicia had asked to wait for the Court of Justice of the European Union (TJUE) to rule on an issue raised by the Ecological Association Adega. However, the Supreme Court rejected it. In addition, the Xunta de Galicia has clarified that the TSXG is the only one in Spain that has questioned the compatibility of the Law 21/2013 With European regulations. This issue could affect not only projects in Galicia, but also those of other autonomous communities that need an environmental evaluation. The Minister of Economy of Galicia, María Jesús Lorenzana, celebrated that the Supreme Court has validated processing Of wind projects, highlighting that the more wind energy occurs, cheaper could be the price of electricity. The impact. All this conflict is not an isolated case, but reflects a broader problem related to energy inequality in Spain. The precedent that the TS feels has guaranteed the continuity of wind projects in the community, but the opposition will continue to exist. Therefore, to move towards a sustainable energy transition, it will be necessary to balance the interests of the economy, the environment and local communities. Image | Pexels Xataka | Now we can see the rise of renewable energy in the world: we just needed the satellite images

In the emptied Galicia there are municipalities taking care of gas stations and shops. THE OBJECTIVE: Don’t run out of services

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The Emptied Spain It is depopulated Spain, but also the one that is emptied from companies and services. Both, the Lack of neighbors And the absence of businesses that cover their most basic needs, are part of the same vicious circle that in the long run the peoples to abandonment. In Galicia They have decided Breaking that loop with a curious movement. To avoid running out of supermarkets or gas stations there are municipalities that are taking care of their management. The objective: that the neighbors should not move kilometers for something as simple as buying the bread. Even at the cost of the City Council itself assume private services. The ghost of depopulation. The depopulation He is one of the great ghosts of the rural of Spain. And Galicia is no exception. A few months ago his Consello de Contas He issued A report in which he warned that in the community (especially in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense) there are almost a hundred towns in ‘danger of extinction’, a status that is explained by a combination of factors: a register below the 5,000 inhabitants, a low population density (less than 20%) and more deaths than births. INE himself calculates that in 2021 there were almost 25,700 Gallegos residing in municipalities that do not pass from the thousand registered. According to his nomenclator, in the community there are also around 1,900 depopulated villagesmany of them in Lugo. Only in 2023 it is estimated that the province lost about 40. Other populations are still alive but with a handful of hundreds of neighbors and having lost much in a short time. To name a case, Murasin the Terra Cha, I had 1,151 neighbors In 2000. In 2024 were 600. A vicious circle. We commented before. The localities of emptied Spain do not remain alone without neighbors. They often do it also without businesses that cover their needs. And one and the other, that of inhabitants and services, feed a vicious circle that ends up accelerating the emptying of the peoples. Although there is experts That they conclude that at general “accessibility to services” in Spain is good, especially if we talk about health and education, they also recognize that differences arise when the provincial scale is lowered. A quick search arrives on Google to find Complaints of populations about the public transport or lack of something as simple as bars and shops. And how to solve it? A question similar to that was asked a while ago in Pol and Ribeira de Piquíntwo localities of the rural of the province of Lugo that together barely go from the 2,000 residents. The first, Pol, has 1,542 registered, 27% less than in 2000. The second, Ribeira de Piquín, had about 500 residents, 80% less than at the beginning of this century. Both municipalities share Another featurein addition to the province and a diminishing census: given the loss of basic businesses their respective municipalities have decided to step forward and guarantee the continuity of private services. A kind of municipalization which aims to prevent your neighbors from having to look for life for issues as basic as buying bread. Their cases have attracted the interest of media such as The voice of Galicia either Eldiario. A “municipal” supermarket. In the case of Pol the Consistory he found the risk that The only supermarket From the town, located in the population of Mosterio, closed. Its owner retired and in the absence of relief or other shopkeepers that would like to transfer it, the panorama was complicated for the neighbors who reside there. “No one was interested in carrying it. It was deserted,” explained in December Its mayor, Lino Rodríguez, Progress. The City Council solution: Buy the super To keep it open. It is not yet known How will it manage, through a foundation, attracting a franchise or with an autonomous, but the goal is clear: to guarantee the continuity of the service. “We acquired the entire block, which has an area of ​​about 800 m2, for a total of 150,000 euros,” Rodríguez added In December. The project went ahead with the support of the Diputación and aspires to go beyond trade: Pol wants to recover an old sausage mark and create social housing at the top. At the end of last year the town had already paid 75,000 euros for the premises, it hoped to pay a similar sum of 2025 and already thought about furniture and facilities to serve customers. “We need to acquire the material goods of the interior, such as refrigerators, freezers and cold cameras. But throughout 2025 we will try to prepare the charcería,” He reported. OBJECTIVE: Refers in the town. In Ribeira de Piquín, the City Council has also moved to preserve a key service, although in this case the focus is on a gas station. At the end of 2024 the Consistory was in process for rent an already built service area but it carries more than a decade closed The idea is reopen it in 2025 and that the neighbors do not have to move to another town to replace or look for fuel. The project is carried out through the Terreo Foundationparticipated by the City Council, and with support of the Diputación de Lugo, which provides funds through an agreement. The rent will be done through a direct award procedure, Precise Progressand once completed the idea of ​​the City Council is to adapt the station to the regulations to register it. In the budget they also reserve funds to hire full -time personnel who can take care of the suppliers and serve users. Is it an isolated case? No. The gas station will not be the only (or first) project that is promoted with the terreo lever. Before it was launched A fish farma livestock exploitation and even a kiwi plantation. “The municipalities as small as we have many difficulties for the private initiative to come and invest. Hence we have no other option … Read more

Give a stretch to its underwater borders west of Galicia

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Spain is about to give A considerable stretch north. One, yes, that will only be appreciated under water or in the offices. After Years of workmeetings and oceanographic campaigns, Spain is about to ensure that its underwater borders west of Galicia are extended by 38,500 square kilometers, an extension that will be added to The already achieved A long time ago in the Cantabrian. This has just ratified the UN at a meeting with Spanish delegates. For the final seen we will still have to wait a few months. Maybe bureaucracy sounds, but extending underwater limits beyond 200 nautical miles (just over 300 km) is much more interesting than it seems. What happened? That Galicia prepares to give A small stretch. And with it the whole country. Of course, the border extension will not be visible, nor will Spain redraw the silhouette we usually see in the maps. The reason is simple. What will really be expanded is the continental platform, the underwater border located west of Galicia. There is still the final OK for change, which is expected for August, but for the moment the United Nations already It has ratified it. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Who has announced it? The news was advanced on the weekend Vigo lighthousewhich has echoed in turn of the information that He has been publishing In networks the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) and Luis Somozainvestigator of the institution and scientific coordinator of the expansion of the continental platform of Galicia. The reason? The Redibration of the underwater borders of Galicia It was these days In New York, where a Spanish delegation was transferred. There the UN It has ratified The expansion of the continental platform north of the Bank of Galicia. Of course, the newspaper specifies that the final approval will not arrive for a few months, in August. And how much will it be expanded? A good pinch, as Luis Somoza himself recognized Thursday after the meeting held in New York. “We have secured an extension of 38,000 km2 beyond 200 miles,” revealed in x. To better learn the geology of that huge plain, which exceeds 5,000 m deep, at the end of May a new scientific campaign will be undertaken with the Sarmiento de Gamboa ship. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Is it something new? The advances do. The background struggle to widen underwater borders no. In August 2006 Spain He already presented A proposal to expand the domain of the continental platform in the Cantabrian, an aspiration that achieved a key advance in March 2009, when the New York commission gave the green light to the extension of the legal title of Spain of some some 78,000 km2 in the area. In the case of Galicia, in 2009 Spain looked at the outer limits of the continental platform beyond 200 marine miles. On the surface, that would mean adding about 50,000 km2 under Spanish sovereignty. Apart from Galicia and Cantabria, Spain was interested in a third point: the Canary Islands, more specifically an extension of 206,000 km2 to the Oste of the Islands. If the three ambitioned regions (Cantabrian, Galicia and the Canary Islands are added) they would go from 330,000 km. And based on what? The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes the scientific criteria that allow the limits of the sovereignty of a country over the seabed to go beyond the 200 nautical miles. In 2010 Spain presented Before the UN precisely that, the scientific evidence that would endorse the aspirations of the underwater borders in Galicia. Spain is not the only one immersed in such a process. In 2010 The country I pointed That the attractiveness of the platforms, rich in gas and mineral deposits, among other resources, had aroused the interest of other tens of nations with coast. Specifically, he spoke of 51 countries that had moved to achieve their continental slopes. Why is it important? The area that is now in the focus, west of Galicia, has depths of between 800 and more than 5,000 my the objective of geologists is to achieve a more detailed cartography to know it better. The data will be presented at the UN with a view to the August appointment in which, As progress Lighthouseit is expected to put the final touch to more than a decade of work to expand underwater borders. The objective: “shield” its preservation and allow Spain to explore and exploit its resources. Images | Gregorio Puga Bailón (Flickr) In Xataka | Galician marshare have launched a ‘sos’ in the face of their great threat: the risk of collapse of the AruSo estuary

15 years ago, a forest engineer decided to grow sponges in Galicia. The war against plastic has ended up giving him right

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In the mid -90s, Juan Carlos Mascato finished studying forest sciences in Hamburg and enrolled in a company in the area. He was lucky: of all the things that company could have needed, he needed someone to speak Spanish, someone to send to Paraguay. It was then that he met the Lugfa and began his crusade against the plastic. Today is the largest producer in Europe in the sponges and natural scourers. And all from a small town in Pontevedra. What is the LUFFA? The LUFFAS are a genus of plants slightly related to pumpkins, cucumbers and melons. In fact, in Southeast Asia is a Very popular food as long as they are collected soon. Otherwise it becomes too fibrous to be consumed. So fibrous that, duly processed, they can be used as exfoliating sponges. For centuries, this type of vegetables (or some of its variants) were widely used and were among the crops of any orchard that would be precious. But the irruption of plastic from the 40s sent them to the drawer of history. Until now what THE WAR OF THE PLASTICS They have returned them to the first line. And what does the European Luffa giant do in Caldas de Reis? It is an excellent question. As Silvia Rodríguez explained in the countrythe clearest reason is that the Mascato family (of German mother, but Father Gallego) had a farm available in a town with a very particular climate that made it a good candidate to try subtropical crops: Caldas. Chance does not end there, of course. Because the processing of the LUFFA includes a fermentation phase in which the hot springs of the Gallego municipality fit as a ring to the finger. No one is a prophet in their land … And in this case it doesn’t happen either. Because the truth is that Iberian vegetable sponges It is little known here in the country. Of the 200,000 sponges that manufacture a year, only 10% stay in Spain. The rest goes to countries such as Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Norwegian or East next … Right now, the company works on an online marketing project in Germany and expanding its productive infrastructure to the US. What sponges can teach us. Because although the story is already very interesting, there is something that really crucial: that for decades we have despised many traditional solutions simply because they were. And that is a mistake. This was made clear in 2015 Karolinska Institute of Stockholm when granted your youyou The Nobel Prize in Medicine. Many interpreted him as a prize for traditional Chinese medicine, but it was not accurate: your feat was incredible. Since 1965, your youyou It was analyzing thoroughly Each and every one of the remedies that the millenary Chinese civilization had been selecting. And, indeed, most pure superstition, pseudoscience and placebo. However, he found the Artemisininea revolutionary treatment against malaria. Rethink the past. This is an example of the book that if we approach us with an open (but rigorous) look at the technological history of humanity, we can find really creative solutions to the problems of our day to day. In the middle of a world invaded by plastics, natural sponges are an excellent example. Image | Jan Helbrant | Tony Buser In Xataka | How an idea can model societies with hundreds of millions of people almost 1000 years later: Schultz’s hypothesis

Estrella Galicia has decided that the star ingredient of his new beer is Valencia. And that is a risky bet

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Yesterday, by surprise and before The suspicion of not a few, Estrella Galicia presented The one that would probably have been the most extravagant (and risky) product of its extensive catalog, which by the way are already including beers With perclabes either peppers: A BRIK of Special broth For Valencian Paella. It sounded crazy. And it was. There is no such broth. Nor will exist. What the Galician company is planned to launch is a “special Valencian edition” of its beer, something that announces almost on the eve of the Valencia failures. Beyond what the Galician company does the movement says a lot about where the beer sector walks. Paella Estrella Galicia broth? Sounds weird. And it is logical because it is. Yesterday Galicia surprised his own and strangers announcing a “broth for Valencian paella” (sic) Through its official profiles of Instagram, X and LinkedInin which I include even photos of the product, in whose container it could be read in great ‘Estrella Galicia’. The announcement was replicated in networks and there was a good handful of media that echoed the launch, clarifying In some cases that they had tried unsuccessfully to confirm the news with the company itself. They did not get it. And there was a reason. Click on the image to go to Tweet. NO BREATMENT, SPECIAL EDITION. It sounded like a marketing campaign. And there have been no surprises. It was. Estrella Galicia has confirmed it today through the same channels, with A video Shared in networks in which the cake uncovered: “Yesterday we launched our broth for Paella Valenciana and you put us to broth. Quiet, it was a joke.” The stitch goes with thread and in the same piece they take the opportunity to announce the product that they intend to launch: a beer ‘special edition Valencia’. Wrapping in tradition. What did the broth for Paellas come? Why yesterday’s message? Was it only a hook to gain visibility? Yes. And no. The campaign has served Estrella Galicia for something else: in addition to effectively multiplying the repercussion of the launch (that of the new beer, not the broth Fake) has allowed him to emphasize the leitmotiv of its commercial strategy, the basic idea of ​​its product: tradition. The Galician firm wants to reinforce in the Valencian Community. And curiously he wants to do so associating himself with the image of local culture. “This broth (that of Paella Estrella Galicia) has never existed. We would never do anything like that because, as you, we understand the value of our recipes. And here is our only secret ingredient is to respect the ingredients,” ensures the brewer in the video with which he announced his new Valencia 2025 edition. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Valencian, why? In summary: Estrella Galicia associates its image to the defense of tradition in a market, the Valencian, in which the bottles of the Rivera Children’s Corporation have already been worked on an important hole. In 2023 The provinces It echoed A study which revealed that, although in the territories close to the region, consumers opt for Mahou, star of Levante, Amber or Estrella Dam, the favorite beer of the Valencians was the one made by a company from the other end of the country. The question that leaves its launch is … What is special and Valenciana the special Valencian edition? The company does not clarify it. Is limited to ensuring That the drink will be “a tribute” to the passion of the community through the paella, but without going into details or deepening how it will elaborate or get it to differ from the rest of its catalog, beyond the labeling. Barrels … and maps. The star campaign also talks about something else: to what extent the brewer is a market played and distributed in Spain. A few months ago Datacentric elaborated A map of favorite beer brands by autonomous communities that demonstrate the clear (and pronounced) differences at the territorial level. In the Peninsular Center, Mahou reigns, Cruzcampo does it in Andalusia, in Aragon it is amber, in Catalonia Estrella Dam, in Murcia stands out Estrella de Levante and in much of the rest of the country Galicia makes it star. Beyond the preferences for reasons of historical and cultural roots, the weight of the Galician company at the state level does not surprise. If Star Galicia has highlighted for something over the last years it is his aggressive marketing strategy. His bottles have ended up to Cristina Pedroche and Chicote during New Year’s Campanadas. Even of the influencer Chiara Ferragniwho a few days ago posed with a bottle For the 28.7 million followers on Instagram. Click on the image to go to Tweet. The importance of figures. Campaigns such as Valencia also tell us about something else: an industry, the brewer, in full expansion and has been looking for new margins towards which its market widen. Although alcohol consumption is experiencing deep changes In Spain and distancing Of young people and frequent drinking intake, the beer sector has excelled in recent years due to the efficacy of its strategy. How has consumption evolved? The Statista tables They reflect that the total volume of beer consumed in Spain grew in a practically sustained way (with the impasse of the pandemic) between 2012 and 2023, following a opposite trend to that of the per capita intake. Statista sample Also that in 2023 in Spain each person drank on average about 56 liters of beer. There are two less than the previous year, but still far exceeding the average marks of (at least) the last decade and a half. Employers’ data Cervecera are also interesting: in 2023 it found an increase in consumption of 2.84%, although that growth was sustained by foreign tourism. Without it, he estimates that he would have fallen 3.53%. That percentage basically explains by the closing of bars after the pandemic and changes in the habits of the Spaniards, which at least in … Read more

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