At the council meeting to be held on November 3, four of the opposition parties at Alcudia town hall - the Partido Popular, Vox, Ciudadanos and Unió per Alcúdia - will urge the mayor and the governing coalition to form a common front against the mainland electricity cable entering through the bay of Pollensa. They instead want to it to enter through the bay of Alcudia, meaning that the entry point would be at the port.
This mainland cable, the second connection as there already is one via Santa Ponsa, is scheduled to be operational in 2026. Alcudia is the location chosen by the Spanish government and the national grid company, Red Eléctrica. The Balearic government, through the ministry for energy transition, has been seeking agreement for the cable to enter in the bay of Pollensa. The original proposal - S'Illot - met with total opposition from the town hall, which proposed an alternative, Sa Marina. The ministry has never publicly commented on this but appears to be against it. A third option - by the marina in Bonaire - was accepted by both the ministry and the town hall, but this one, as with Sa Marina, ran up against opposition from residents.
Bringing the cable into the bay of Alcudia and to the port would, on the face of it, make logistical sense. The route it could in theory then take to the substation by the Es Murterar power station would be less impactful on residential centres. However, the big stumbling block is posidonia sea grass. The cable would be anchored to the seabed, and the bay of Alcudia is full of posidonia, whereas the bay of Pollensa isn't. The aim has been to prevent or minimise the impact on posidonia.
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If the cable would, potentially damage the sea grass, what else would it damage?? Given the environmental messaging of the Government it would appear to be ‘best practice’ to make use of a brown field site - the port and the old electric station. If the cable isn’t ecologically friendly, perhaps best to force the electric company to find a cable or system that doesn’t harm the environment??