The interior of Spain has undergone a profound transformation in recent decades due to the development of renewable energies. This process, regardless of its intensity, has generated a change in the function, forms and meanings of its landscapes, where energy is now the defining element. We will address the case of the Montes de Torozos, a space that projects the image of a wasteland exposed to strong and frequent winds in the center of the Duero Basin, composed of 41 municipalities totaling more than 1300km2._x000D_
Farmland represents more than 75% of the surface area of the study area, and although the occupation of woodland is 10%, its extension is remarkable compared to the barrenness expressed by the plains of the interior of the Duero basin. An agricultural and forest landscape through which numerous high voltage lines crossed, coming from productive areas such as the Saltos del Duero or the mining basins, reaching the node of the substation of La Mudarra, a key piece in the operation of the power grid in the center and northwest of the peninsular system. If we add to the favorable context for wind power development in Spain and the autonomous community of Castilla y León, the availability of resources, the La Mudarra node, large properties and agricultural technology, we obtain a favourable context for the promotion of the first wind farms in the center of the Duero basin. From a punctual development as the initial one, five years ago, we passed to a massive development of wind farms, to which we add the construction of new substations to which new photovoltaic plants are connected._x000D_
The aim of this paper is to learn about the different phases in the development of renewable energies through the case of Mudarra and to characterize what may be one of the most unique renewable energy landscapes in the interior of northern Spain._x000D_
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Daniel Herrero Luque; Eugenio Baraja and Marta Martínez Arnáiz
University of Valladolid; University of Valladolid and University of Burgos

 
ID Abstract: 179