An Israeli firm participates within the enlargement of the most important wind farm in Spain regardless of the restrictions utilized by the Government | Economy | EUROtoday

They see one another. They are heard. They transfer. They are a part of the 56% of renewable power that Spain produced final yr and of the lifetime of Atalaya del Cañavete, Cañada Juncosa and Tébar, three small cities in Cuenca which have simply over 500 inhabitants. There, the rows of generators from the nation’s largest wind farm, Gecama, camouflage the agricultural exodus. They rotate whereas their proprietor, the Israeli firm Enlight Renewable Energy, maintains related initiatives within the Gaza Strip and in territories declared occupied based on the UN, even though Spain has adopted an arms embargo on Israel and regardless of the assaults on the Palestinian inhabitants with the ceasefire in pressure.

In July, earlier than the Government introduced (at first of September) a package deal of measures to veto arms commerce with Israel and in addition commerce with merchandise from occupied territories, the Ministry for Energy Transition licensed a venture for the corporate, denounced by greater than 130 NGOs for “profiting from the genocide in Gaza.” It was concerning the hybridization (manufacturing of electrical energy by way of varied means) of Gecama’s 69 wind generators in a bigger scale plan. The enlargement, which is able to incorporate photovoltaic panels and storage batteries to supply “24-hour clean energy to 100,000 homes,” is supported by the Spanish plan for the power transition and can improve Enlight’s earnings, which is able to pocket 87 million euros yearly and almost 75 million ebitda, based on the corporate’s personal knowledge.

Juan Miguel, a retired farmer from Tébar (293 inhabitants), picks olives on the outskirts of the city. It coexists with the each day hum of the generators that occupy 8,000 hectares and produce 329 MW. From his farm, situated on the foot of the Las Lomillas wind farm, a European property with 19 smaller wind generators, he observes how each initiatives encompass the municipal space. “These have been around for about 12 years. You get used to them, but they break up the landscape,” he says, pointing to the mills of Las Lomillas. “The noise is unbearable when they all work at the same time,” he provides earlier than evaluating them to “the huge concrete towers” ​​of Enlight.

The enlargement of Gecama will double its manufacturing to 625 MW in mid-2026 and can exceed 8,000 hectares, based on an organization press launch, though within the BOE publication of July 14, the place the inexperienced mild was given to hybridization, the whole area required just isn’t specified. Industrial engineer Cristina Alonso, head of the Climate Justice space of ​​the Friends of the Earth platform, who despatched a letter to the Government to demand the blocking of this Israeli firm’s initiatives, as urged by the UN in September 2024, criticizes the political incoherence and lack of planning within the power transition. “We ban Israeli athletes, but we maintain the energy agreements because it is a strategic sector. It is the responsibility of the State to decide which company participates in the energy transition,” says Alonso by cellphone, who emphasizes that Enlight promotes “the economy of the apartheid and the illegal occupation of Gaza.”

This newspaper has tried, without success, to contact the Enlight company where more than 350 people work around the world, according to its own report published in July 2025, which does not break down how many correspond to Spain. In addition to investing 310 million dollars in the hybridization of Gecama, the company operates in Israel – in addition to the Golan Heights, the largest wind farm in occupied territory recognized by the UN as part of Syria, and in the Gaza Strip -, Italy, Croatia, Ireland, Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Sweden and the United States. In Spain, it has requested to carry out more projects related to the energy transition in rural areas of Huesca, Valencia and Andalusia, says Amigas de la Earth. According to a press release from Enlight, Gecama, which last year brought the company some 50 million euros, will play “a key role” in the energy transition and in improving supply in Spain after the blackout in April.

Sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition have avoided responding directly and refer to the decision adopted by the Council of Ministers the decision on which sectors would be affected by the veto of Israel. The ministry avoids specifying whether green energy should be left out of any diplomatic crisis or whether breaking previous agreements would mean million-dollar losses for Spain, as claimed by Friends of the Earth. “The control of foreign investments in strategic sectors corresponds to the Council of Ministers through the Foreign Investment Board,” they point out. In the case of the authorization to hybridize the Gecama park, “in the administrative procedure the nationality of the company that owns it is not relevant,” adds the ministry headed by Sara Aagesen, which clarifies that the approval responds only to technical and strategic criteria.

The head of Climate Justice at Friends of the Earth describes it as “inadmissible” that Spain entrusts its energy resources to “a company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and that promotes genocide in Gaza.” Enlight had a turnover of 399 million dollars (about 344 million euros) in 2024. Alonso emphasizes that “the power transition should be truthful and go hand in hand with human rights. No matter how crucial non-public financing or the hybridization of parks is to fight local weather change. We should chorus from doing enterprise with such an organization, simply as we help the UN decision,” explains Alonso.

Regarding the expansion of Gecama, the engineer believes that it is an oversized project. “They are beating their chests that they will provide power to 100,000 houses. This might be executed utilizing the roofs or roofs with out occupying agricultural land. The enlargement goes towards a good power transition and is a transparent instance of greenwashing“, insists the head of Friends of the Earth, who questions: “In the agricultural areas of empty Spain, initiatives are concentrated as a result of it’s simpler to expropriate and acquire earnings, particularly if they’re initiatives of lower than 49.5 MW, whose competence is autonomous.”

Private financing supports renewable deployment in Spain. Last year alone, the European Investment Bank allocated €12.3 billion to power clean energy and battery projects. They are bets that the autonomies consider cas engines of employment in rural life. For Juan Miguel, Gecama auctions an opportunity far from emptied Spain. “No one has labored there for a very long time. More than one within the city desires them to place a turbine on their land, acquire the cash and go away right here,” he says because the windmills flip.