The village of Higueruela is dwarfed by the 15-story high windmills of Europe’s largest wind farm, but none of its residents are complaining.
While some might consider the turbines an eyesore, in this farming village in one of Spain’s least developed regions, Castille-La Mancha, many are eager to see more of the energy -- and cash -- generating 180-foot-high machines.
Two new schools are testament to the improvements the plant has brought the isolated village, where an annual 2,400 hours of wind make it a prime site for generating power.
Wind speeds of 10 mph are enough to set the mills in motion, and with 161 megawatts of installed capacity, the complex can meet the electricity needs of around 640,000 people.
“If only there could be more wind parks,” said 34-year-old Gabriel Minguez, working behind one of the few bars in the village.
“The town hall gets money for the wind park, and it provides work in the village,” he added, speaking over the distant murmur of the four-ton spokes of the plant’s 244 windmills, which rise from a hill barely 800 yards away.
Town gets rent, too
With traditional economic activity limited largely to growing grapes and grains, some Higueruela residents cashed in by selling their land to power utility Iberdrola, which built the park over four years ago.
Some of the windmills also provide the village with an ongoing income because they occupy land still owned by the town hall, which rents it to Iberdrola.
“We earn 450,000 euros a year from the wind park. It provides the largest portion of our income,” said Mayor Jose Colmenero, who manages an annual budget of 1.6 million euros.
Some 25 villagers are employed as maintenance workers, stemming a steady population drain afflicting most of rural Spain -- although even with these jobs, it is possible to stand for minutes on end in Higueruela’s streets without seeing another person.
Thanks to government incentives, Spain is the world’s third-largest producer of wind power behind Germany and the United States.
It wants 15 percent of installed energy capacity to come from wind power by 2011, to reduce dependence on imported oil and help meet its Kyoto Protocol targets of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Opposition exists
Not all Spanish villages are as welcoming as Higueruela. Some people deride the turbines as monstrosities, while environmentalists say woodland has to be cleared to make way for them.
In another La Mancha village, Luzaga, the 100-strong population mobilized effectively against Danish company Neg Micon’s project to install 33 turbines.
“We have got a delay in the project. The regional government did not include the wind farm in its priorities for 2004 as they had announced,” said Celso Hernando, who has been leading the movement against the wind park.
“We are not against wind power, but if they build a wind park here it will destroy the ecosystem surrounding the town,” he said.
Juan Ignacio Gomez, from the environment department of an Iberdrola unit, said there was no sign of damage in Higueruela, adding that all wind parks have to go through a rigorous environmental impact assessment.
The main toll seems to be a few dozen partridges killed each year when they fly into the windmills in foggy weather.
Largely unconcerned by the changes to the landscape, the main concern for Higueruela residents is that the winds keep blowing.
“What matters to me is that before the wind park the village was worse, and there was less work,” said Minguez.
