The New Winds platform, formed by residents of Odieta, Olaibar, Anue and Esteribar, recently opposed the construction of seven wind farms planned by Enigma Green Power. The association warned of the serious damage that these wind turbines would cause in the area, “due to the loss of habitats and fauna, the impact of the landscape and the lack of sustainability.”

As Iosu Alfaro, a member of the platform, clarified, their concerns about the project were raised from the outset when it was detected that each of the windmill projects they wanted to install was registered in the name of a sub-company within the Enigma Green Power conglomerate. "These companies are not the ones that will later manage the wind farms, nor are they the ones that will build them. These companies are project hunters who sell projects once they have obtained permits. We lost track of the property in this whole process." Pots against the project can be held until June 11 and has already begun meetings with the municipalities of the area to gather support.

These seven windmills, which are intended to be implemented by the project, would open the door in the future to the possibility of converting them into seven wind farms, which would have a direct impact on the environment of the valley. "Our valleys are areas of Atlantic forests, and we should really ask ourselves what kind of renewable energy models we want to implement to make them truly renewable."The windmill installation itself, in fact, requires a lot of intervention in the environment, including the road that should be opened to allow the windmills to be transported to the site and the underground base where the electric power of five megawaites and the wind turbines of 195 meters of height can stand, which would be "the size of two football fields".

The impact of wind farms is not limited to the area, since, as Alfaro pointed out, the valleys of the area are green corridors, precisely those "green infrastructures that are recently required to be protected from public institutions". "The scientific literature shows us that we are in an important migratory corridor, and that this environment of ours is decisive for a wide variety of species. It would be the case of the red myrtle, for example, but lots of other birds also use this passage in their migration."

"Don't we have a better area for renewable energy projects in our territory? ", asks Alfaro. "The answer is yes, the City Council of Pamplona knows it and has made a very detailed diagnosis, for example, to produce 76% of its energy needs with photovoltaic. We have roofs of our houses, industrial areas, sports areas for that. We need to push that. We’re doing it, but the difference between these two models is still big.” On a bureaucratic level, in fact, wind power projects have opened a “wide highway” in the last 30 years, a limit that other projects have not yet reached.

The member of Nueva Viento stressed that awareness is key and that, together with it, it is essential to make a clear commitment to projects such as those of the energetic communities that promote citizen decision-making. "So far we have detected energy communities as projects for the management of small projects, but they can also be useful for the management of larger energy projects. With other project models, on the other hand, we will only be customers who depend on the markets."