Green energies: Iberdrola's not so clean past in Latin America
View of the Belo Monte Dam in Altamira, Para.
Its construction, highly contested at the time because of the harm it caused to local populations, was heavily publicized.
Mauro Pimentel / AFP
Text by: Géraud Bosman-Delzons Follow
6 mins
A group of journalists based in Brittany, where the Spanish industrialist is carrying out controversial wind projects, has revisited the way in which the giant in the renewable energy sector has established itself in Brazil and Mexico.
Facts and testimonies reported do not play in his favor.
Advertising
Read more
What do the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in France, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico or even Belo Monte in the heart of the Amazon forest have in common?
The presence of the Spanish industrialist Iberdrola in controversial installations of wind turbines or hydroelectric dams.
The Breton cove is scheduled to spin 62 wind turbines 207 meters high "
end of 2023
", according to the schedule unveiled last month by Ailes Marines, the French subsidiary of Iberdrola.
The park, whose construction site is experiencing significant delays, could eventually supply electricity to 835,000 inhabitants, or 9% of Brittany's electricity.
Number one in wind power
But the project, costing 2.4 billion euros, has met with local mistrust and resistance for years because of its environmental impact.
He even managed to unite against him fishermen, who fear for the resources, and their best enemy, Sea Shepherd, who warns of the danger to biodiversity.
In June 2021, a hydraulic oil leak was identified and described as "
significant
by state authorities.
It extended over nearly 16 km north of Erquy, a very popular fishing area, for its scallops in particular.
The project is also the subject of several complaints before the European Commission and the French courts, in particular for concealment of favoritism in the awarding of the public contract.
Finally, Iberdrola has sights on southern Brittany for a second offshore project.
Founded in 1992, with 36,000 employees, Iberdrola is the world leader in wind energy, and a bridgehead in solar and hydroelectricity.
Virtually dead at the turn of the 2000s, the Spanish energy company is today one of the most listed companies in European financial markets.
A “recovery” due to its emblematic CEO who felt the coal winds turn before anyone else and set the course for renewables.
Ignacio Sanchez Galan is the most powerful and the most paid of the Iberian bosses.
He is also accused of being involved in a case of espionage between large companies since June 2021.
“
This company highlights its concern for the preservation of the environment, to build responsible, sustainable projects.
It also claims to be inclusive in the process of setting up its works.
We wanted to see what was behind these elements of communication, to know what was this company that is coming to us, so that Bretons and Bretons know to whom we are entrusting the reins of this kind of project.
To do this, we took an interest in several of its emblematic so-called "green"
energy projects
in Latin America
", explains Gwenvaël Delanoë, co-founder of Splann, an association of journalists born in 2021 in Brittany, which specializing in environmental issues.
The Spanish manufacturer has been turning its blades in Mexico and its valves in Brazil for nearly fifteen years for the oldest.
However, its establishment in these countries has been accompanied by a procession of both human and environmental damage, establishes the documentary work broadcast on Tuesday March 29 (
“Iberdrola. When clean energy has dirty hands”
, in free access) .
The five chapters of the investigation do not contain any revelations, strictly speaking, nor establish Iberdrola's direct responsibility in the facts reported.
But this synthesis, notably through the "
updating of testimonials
of premises, offers an overall result that is not very favorable to the company's image.
The story highlights the prejudices surrounding the eruption of these iron mills or these dams.
In Mexico, many wind farms have been built over the past twenty years.
Splann looked at two of them, on the windy isthmus of Tehuantepec in the infamous state of Oaxaca, where journalists and human rights defenders pay with their lives for their freedom of expression.
"
Wind turbines are a sensitive subject in which disputes with peasants, accusations of land spoliation and corruption, armed militias, threats against journalists and assassinations of activists
intertwine", writes Splann, who "
listed at least three cases of assassinations of local activists fighting either against wind projects or for better electricity prices, between 2013 and 2018
”.
In Mexico, "
we documented a context that was bloody to say the least
,” adds Gwenvaël Delanoë.
“
The charges of violations against Iberdrola have not been answered.
»
“Ethnocidal action” in Belo Monte
The Venta II wind farm (98 wind turbines, 2007) is built on the “
busiest migration route in the world
”, according to an impact study prior to the project.
Nearly 10,000 birds and bats "
are believed to have died in collision with a wind turbine
" in a single year, according to the (2011) World Bank figure cited by the survey.
"
The chemicals (oils) released by the engines are blown away and contaminate wells, lagoons and seas
," the article further quotes.
The consequences are even more salient in Brazil.
For example, Iberdrola participated, through the Norte Energia consortium, in the construction of a dam in Belo Horizonte, inaugurated at the end of 2019. The power plant attached to it is the fourth most powerful in the world.
Located in indigenous territory, the construction had been very strongly contested,
as RFI had observed on the spot
on several occasions, and marred by "
serious human rights violations
", recalls Splann.
Thousands of people had been forcibly displaced, poorly compensated and destabilized in their traditional way of life.
In 2015, the federal authorities recognized the damage: "
The establishment of Belo Monte constitutes an ethnocidal action by the Brazilian State and the concessionaire Norte Energia, evidenced by the destruction of the social organization, customs, languages and traditions of the affected indigenous groups.
In 2020, the federal justice of Altamira in turn recognized "
the probable impacts of Norte Energia on the way of life of indigenous peoples
".
“
We realize that Iberdrola's practices are ultimately not so different from those of the oil majors which we know have a lot of legal or ecological pots.
We realize that it is not because we put wind turbines that everything is clean, far from it
,” concludes Gwenvaël Delanoë.
Iberdrola, via its Brazilian subsidiary Neoenergia, or the Norte Energia consortium commented at length on each of the three chapters devoted to Brazil, “
except on the question of ethnocide
”, regrets Splann.
Contacted by RFI about this investigation by the Splann collective, the Iberdrola company did not respond.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Environment
Energies
Brazil
Mexico
Human rights
our selection