Mġarr Residents And Protestors Unite Against Proposed Solar Farm On Six Football Pitches Worth Of Land
Residents and farmers from Mġarr banded together with activists to show their anger at legal appeal that hopes to see a “sprawling solar farm on arable land” built in the town.
This comes after the Planning Authority originally shot down Electrofix’s plans to build a solar energy farm on land the size of around six football pitches.
Gathered together, the crowd called out the presentation of new plans at the appeal stage, calling it “unacceptable” as an appeal should cover the original plans, and not new ones.
Residents also expressed their concerns about the prominent presence of Electrofix at the Agrifair currently in Ta’ Qali, despite the fact that the company does not operate in the farming sector.
“The fact that Electrofix is trying to depict its activities as agricultural ones, when this is clearly not the case, is highly suspect and a worry to several farmers,” activists said.
The proposed development in Mġarr would involve the construction of solar panels atop greenhouses, a massive project occupying around 38 tumoli, or six football pitches’ worth of arable land on ODZ.
This area is also characterised by traditional rubble walls, carob trees, garigue, protected flaura and fauna, bee colonies, as well as archaeological remains from the Punic and Roman periods.
Activists pointed out that the project goes against the provisions of the document that regulates solar farms in Malta – Solar Farms Policy 2021 – which clearly states that they cannot be built on agricultural and natural land.
Farmers said the solar panels would be detrimental to the growth of any produce, since their installation would mean that the fields would not be exposed to direct sunlight and would instead fall in the shade.
Meanwhile, an archaeologist explained that the project is located in an area of high archaeological importance in Mġarr, with several archaeological remains at its outskirts. The project would also cause run-off rainwater that would otherwise have been absorbed by soil to flow directly down to the Ta’ Haġrat neolithic temples.
More than 1,200 objections to the project were submitted to the PA.
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