One hundred thousand olive trees are to be uprooted in the south of Spain to make way for solar farms.
The Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, is using a Franco-era law to carry out forced expropriations from centuries-old olive groves in the Province of Jaén, which is known as the “olive oil capital of the world”.
Greenalia, a green energy company, is allegedly poised to turn 900 hectares into large-scale solar panels and wind farms, meaning about 100 farmers could lose their land.
The worst affected areas are in the Jaén municipalities of Lopera, Arjona and Marmolejo, where the equivalent of about 100 football fields of olive trees will be lost, according to the North Campiña platform, an advocacy group.
So far 5,000 olive trees have been uprooted, sources told The Telegraph.
The farmers are protesting against the expropriation, with North Campiña taking legal action against Greenalia for alleged environmental crimes.
Juan Campos, 67, an olive farmer in Jaén, said: “We have no support from the politicians of the Andalucian government, nor from the agricultural unions; they have never contacted us, nor have the environmentalists. Where are the environmentalists?”
The dispute highlights the tension between the urgent need for renewable energy and the necessity of preserving cultural heritage and environmental integrity.
One of the main grievances is that the energy generated will not benefit the region as it will be exported to other European countries.
Yet the evergreen trees act as guardians of the environment, helping to combat desertification in a country increasingly prone to rising temperatures, wildfires and floods.
The Anduíjar Court of First Instance and Investigation has opened a preliminary investigation.
The expropriation process began on Nov 7.
Rafael Alcalá, a landowner from Jaén who requested to keep his farm’s location private, described the situation as “extortion”, noting: “Either you sell or they expropriate. If expropriation happens, it will always be on less favourable terms.”
“It will affect not only the economy of those impacted but also the stores in the village and the region. If today we can buy five loaves of bread, tomorrow it will only be two.”
Greenalia said 96.3 per cent of landowners have voluntarily agreed to lease their properties. But Mr Alcalá claims these agreements are coerced, as landowners fear minimal compensation for their olive trees if the expropriation proceeds.
The last olive harvesting season ended in January and for many farmers it may be their last.
Mr Campos inherited a five-hectare olive grove in Jaén from his father, dedicating his life to its cultivation.
He had hoped to pass the farm on to his two children, but now faces forced retirement, while his children will probably move away.
“My family won’t make it to the end of the month once they expropriate us; they’re taking away our livelihood,” Mr Campos said.
“We know [Greenalia] will offer us a pittance, so we have to give in. We are being forced to sell and the project has the backing of the Andalucian government.”
During the harvesting season, Mr Campos and his team work nine hours a day to pick olives using traditional methods. They harvest around 40,000 kilograms of olives annually, yielding about 12,000 litres of oil. With bottles sold at €9 (£7.60) each, he stands to lose an annual income of €108,000.
Francisco Jesús Sevilla Duque, 42, a Lopera councillor and member of Izquierda Unida, a Leftist party, said the annual wage losses for a village could total €950,000.
The compensation allegedly offered in one Greenalia contract is €6,000 annually for 30 years – falling short at about €180,000, according to a farmer who wanted to remain anonymous.
The annual payment could also diminish if the company’s financial performance falters.
A Greenalia contract to rent land in Spain for a solar farm in 2018 shows that it offered €1,000 a hectare and resold it to vulture funds for €25,000. The Telegraph has not been able to verify other details about the land or the projects.
“They are allowing entire communities to become impoverished because these companies do not bring jobs; they bring misery to the villages,” Mr Campos added.
Farmers only have a small window to stop the expropriations. In addition to the 1954 law, the project is currently going ahead under a law introduced by the Junta de Andalucía in 2021.
This allows for less oversight and faster project completion under the law, which equates solar installations with agricultural crops, affecting regions like Lopera, known for its fertile lands.
Environmental activists allege that Greenalia – which received €97 million in February from Macquarie, an Australian asset management firm, for renewable energy development in Spain – is fragmenting projects to circumvent stricter regulations upheld by the Spanish government and imposed on larger plants.
Plants over 50 megawatts must undergo more rigorous scrutiny by the ministry of industry. But under the 2021 law, for projects that do not exceed 50 megawatts, the oversight falls to the autonomous community, in this case, the Junta de Andalucía.
Campaigners say it could pave the way for more corruption in the green energy industry.
Greenalia said information about its projects in Andalucia is “false and is fuelled by political opposition not by technical, legal and/or real data that is required in these types of renewable energy development projects”.
Without the olive groves, the farmers say, residents will be forced to leave the area.
“We are the third-generation with these olive grove estates, and we had always imagined that they would continue to our great-grandchildren. But my children will have to leave the village because there won’t be any work,” Mr Campos said.
According to Spanish media Sur, up to 90 per cent of Andalucian municipalities face high depopulation risks, with many agriculturists lacking university degrees and facing limited employment opportunities beyond farming.
Many agriculturists in the region do not have a university degree, and there are limited options for work beyond their fields.
“It’s not just about losing money; it’s also an emotional issue since this is what my parents worked on and left to me,” said Mr Campos, expressing concern over the fate of his family’s inheritance, which he insists should not be given to a multinational corporation.
Andalucìa produces one-third of Spain’s olive oil and a mighty 10 per cent of that used in the entire world. According to the farmers, Greenalia has four other projects in progress that will affect 900 hectares and uproot more than 470,000 olive trees.
Greenalia denied the allegations, stating that the area under development is limited to 402.29 hectares.
Lawrence Susskind, a city planner and professor at MIT, is calling for greater collaboration between developers and communities to avoid conflicts.
“Nothing should be done at the cost of a few so that the many can have the benefit of the green energy,” he said. “I cannot believe there’s not an equally good alternative site in Spain that would not require the taking down of those olive trees. It just cannot be that there’s no other possible way.”
A statement by the World Economic Forum and MIT, published last month, said local opposition spurred by siting issues is now the biggest obstacle to meeting global decarbonisation goals. Sixty projects around the world have been derailed by the communities they impact, losing time and financial resources that could otherwise be making changes for the better, according to MIT.
The farmers say they support macro solar farms, but Greenalia has chosen a fertile and productive site. The soil is classed as a poorly graded gravel, meaning it can survive in arid climates by retaining water to grow olives without any help from farmers.
“We have other sites in Lopera that are not productive where the plant could be installed – but it would be far from the Guadalquivir River, and the plant needs water,” said Mr Duque.
For now, the farmers are tending to their land as they usually would as they fight to overturn the expropriations. “In Spain, private property does not exist. It isn’t sacred. We have been abandoned by the politicians who are supposed to protect us,” said Mr Alcalá.
The Junta de Andalucia and the Spanish government did not respond to requests for comment.