Landmark ECJ ruling ends legal blockade on 92 Spanish wind farms
European court rules that Galician judges were wrong to slap injunctions on wind farms amounting to 2.5GW
Long-suffering wind power developers in the Spanish region of Galicia breathed a collective sigh of relief on Friday after the European Court of Justice ruled in their favour over a raft of injunctions that were granted and upheld by regional judges over a three-year period.
The legal challenges were filed on a case by case basis by environmental groups over the issue of consultation, resulting in injunctions halting operations at 92 onshore wind farm projects, according to the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE).
An estimated 2.5GW of onshore wind capacity was thrown into limbo by a tangle of environmental objections in Galicia, where the highest regional court of appeal upheld injunctions that were apparently in conflict with a federal initiative to streamline permitting for renewables.
The willingness of Galician judges to grant injunctions on environmental grounds brought scores of wind farm projects to a shuddering halt, with close to $5bn worth of investments affected, according to the AEE.
The ECJ ruled that rights to public consultation had not been violated on projects that had already been approved by Galician planning authorities and were adhering to federal laws on the matter.
"The wind sector welcomes the decision of the ECJ as a key step toward recovering legal certainty and moving forward with the energy transition in Galicia," the AEE said in a statement released today.
"The wind sector calls for all necessary measures to be adopted responsibly and diligently by institutions so that paralysed projects can once again progress at full pace."
In its statement, the AEE argued that the Galician injunctions had inflicted "enormous social and economic cost" on a region that has some of the best conditions for wind power in Spain.
"Galicia, with its great potential for renewables, has lagged far behind in the installation of wind power in recent years — it only installed 171MW between 2020 and 2024 compared to 6,000MW in Spain as a whole," the AEE lamented.
'Inflection' hope
The AEE said the ECJ judgment should serve as an "inflection point" for wind power development in the region.
"This decision restores the confidence of the developers, reinforces the credibility of the legal framework and allows us to return to the path of wind development in Galicia," said AEE general director Juan Virgilio Márquez.
“Now it is time to act quickly and responsibly so that the hitherto paralysed projects resume their activity.”
According to AEE data, Galicia currently boasts 186 wind parks with almost 4GW of capacity, representing 13% of total wind power capacity in Spain, but has many more projects in the pipeline.
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