Twenty-five years after thousands of oaks were planted in the hills of Jalance, Valencia, with European Union funding, the same land is being cleared for a large-scale solar power plant. The move has triggered a fierce debate over the balance between renewable energy expansion and environmental protection in Spain's rural heartland.
The Asociación Naturalista de Ayora y Valle (ANAV) has filed a formal complaint with the Guardia Civil, denouncing the felling and shredding of more than 30 hectares of established oak woodland in the Campichuelo del Campo area. The site forms part of the EU's Natura 2000 network and is designated as a Special Protection Area for Birds (ZEPA), reflecting its ecological significance. Natura 2000 is the European Union's network of protected areas. The designation brings added requirements to consider impacts on protected habitats and bird populations.
From Reforestation to Removal
The affected forest was replanted in 2000 as part of a European reforestation initiative aimed at restoring agricultural land. After 25 years, the oaks had grown to more than three meters, forming a dense Mediterranean woodland. ANAV says the clearance creates a stark contradiction: public funds were used to establish a forest that is now being destroyed for a renewable energy project.
The solar plant, promoted by Promonrg Solar Fotovoltaica 1 SL, received administrative approval under the name Jalance I. Official documents published in the DOGV confirm the project's location on several parcels in the municipality. ANAV argues that replacing a mature forest with solar panels will severely affect the field and local biodiversity, with critical habitats also at risk. The dispute also turns on the difference between recommendations in an environmental assessment and the conditions set in an administrative authorization: the report dated November 30, 2023, recommended excluding certain parcels, while the subsequent administrative position allowed work to proceed on the disputed plots.
Conflicting Environmental Assessments
The approval process for the solar project has seen official positions shift. An environmental report from the Directorate General for the Natural and Animal Environment, dated November 30, 2023, warned that the project would result in the loss of established oak woodland and recommended excluding certain parcels because of their ecological value. After the developer contested the assessment and cited previous favorable reports, but, the administration reversed its stance, ultimately allowing clearance to proceed on the disputed plots.
ANAV says these are precisely the areas now being logged, intensifying tensions between the group and the project's proponents, including regional authorities. The report's warning about woodland loss and the later change in the administrative position place the treatment of those parcels at the centre of the dispute.
Timing Raises Further Concerns
Environmentalists have also criticized the timing of the operation. Tree felling is taking place during the nesting season for birds and the breeding period for many wild species, increasing the risk to local fauna. Natura 2000 status is intended to safeguard such habitats, making the clearance especially contentious. Bird-protection requirements carry particular weight in a ZEPA, where impacts on bird species and their habitats are basic environmental considerations.
ANAV has repeatedly warned about the cumulative impact of renewable energy projects in the Ayora Valley and neighboring municipalities such as Cofrentes, where agricultural and forest lands are increasingly being converted for industrial use. The group says it opposes the current model of large-scale deployment on ecologically sensitive land, not solar energy itself. Instead, it calls for more self-consumption and local energy communities, with projects directed to sites that carry lower environmental costs.
As Spain accelerates its transition to renewable energy, the Jalance case highlights the trade-offs between climate goals and the preservation of natural heritage, while bringing earlier public investment in reforestation into tension with protected-area obligations and long-term environmental commitments. The conflict centres on the land cleared and on how renewable-energy development can be reconciled with habitat protection and that earlier public investment.
