Reforestation of 50% of the occupancy in photovoltaic plants is no longer mandatory.

Reforestation of 50% of photovoltaic occupancy is no longer mandatory in Castilla-La Mancha.

The reforestation surface for installations on rustic land.

La applicable urban planning legislation in Castilla-La Mancha establishes, within the urban qualification process for certain projects on rustic land, the need to fix an area of land that must be subject to reforestation or measures to preserve the natural or agrarian values of these and their environment.

This area must be at least equal to half of the total of the farm, in cases of material storage, storage of machinery, parking of vehicles and collective equipment and industrial or tertiary facilities or establishments, and tree barriers may be placed around the perimeter, in order to better integrate them into the environment.

Specifically, this derives from the application of article 64.2.2 of the Consolidated Text of the Spatial Planning and Urban Activity Act (TRLoTau) and Article 38.1.2) of the Rustic Land Regulations in the current wording incorporated into the Decree 86/2018, of November 20.

The exclusion announcement.

Projects for energy generation, transport and distribution facilities, including photovoltaic solar plants, are excluded from the obligation to reforest half of the farm's surface, as they are not included in the cases expressly listed by the above-mentioned articles.

The General Directorate of Territorial Planning and Urbanism of the Ministry of Development of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, has established this in its instruction No. 8 on photovoltaic reforestation of January 20, 2020, published on February 7 of this year.

What does it suppose?

Reforestation of 50% of photovoltaic occupancy is no longer mandatory in Castilla-La Mancha.

The promoters of the excluded projects will no longer be required to compensate for 50% of the occupied area, although this area will be fixed according to each specific project and the possible conditions to be analyzed in the corresponding environmental procedure of the activity.

If you need information about any environmental or archaeological process to develop your project in the Castilian La Mancha community, do not hesitate to contact us by clicking on this link.