• Volkswagen Requests the exemption of municipal licenses and the preferential regime for the suppliers of its gigafactory

The Sagunto City Council will be one of the great beneficiaries of the installation in its municipal area of ​​the Volkswagen gigafactory, since it is estimated that only for Real Estate Tax it will receive 2.5 million euros per year.

The project was about to derail due to disagreements between the company and the Government of Pedro Sánchez over public aid.

However, with the battery factory back on track after the publication of the strategic territorial project by the Generalitat to speed up deadlines, the consistory that governs the PSOE in coalition with Compromís and Esquerra Unida has ended up breaking political unity.

The Governing Board has approved a report critical of the location of the photovoltaic plant associated with the gigafactory, which Iberdrola will manage.

According to the public documentation of the project, the power supply of the factory will be done by renewable energy of photovoltaic origin, which should guarantee a supply of 240 GWh/year.

The problem, however, lies in its location, and this has been formally stated by the City Council.

According to municipal sources, the three-way meetings between the Valencian Government, Volkswagen and Iberdrola did not take into account the locations proposed by Sagunto for the location of the photovoltaic plant, which has prompted a report from the City Council's Urban Planning area -in the hands of Compromís-, which questions the chosen location.

The sources consulted insist that "areas with low agrological value" were proposed as an alternative, although they were discarded on the grounds that "they were not technically or economically viable."

Now, in the project allegations phase, is when Sagunto has decided to record its formal rejection of the chosen location, with a report that, in any case, is not binding.

"We accept the final decision because we have no other choice," say municipal sources who, in any case, emphasize that the pronouncement of the City Council does not imply any obstacle to the gigafactory in practice.

As the Urban Planning report is not binding, the Generalitat can ignore it directly and continue with the processing of the battery factory, whose works are expected for the first quarter of 2023.

The wake-up call from Sagunto, which paradoxically is governed by the members of the Botanical Council who have laid out the red carpet for Volkswagen, comes after entities such as Acció Ecologista-Agró also expressed their rejection of a photovoltaic macro-plant whose impact on the municipality will be " huge and disproportionate."

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