In these plants, electricity is produced by burning natural gas and the association considers that “they are obsolete, underused and illegal”. Construction started in 2000, started in 2002 and the project ended in 2007. However, in the last decade they have been virtually paralysed, both by the drop in electricity consumption from 2008 onwards and by the increase in renewable energy production.

In 2019 they experienced a sharp upturn: the three existing plants, two of Total and one of Iberdrola, exceeded 10,000 hours of operation, although they remained paralysed during the previous seven years, and in 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Iberian Electricity Market Operator (OMIE), only a few hours have passed.

As Subai Erakuntza points out on his website, “the Department of the Environment of the Government of Navarra is currently in the process of renewing the Joint Environmental Authorizations for these facilities. These documents regulate the operating conditions of these installations. They determine the quantities of pollutants that can be expelled and other conditions related to the environmental impacts and health of people.”

The environmental association suspects that there may be attempts to remove several meters to measure discharges into the air when setting the new requirement. It also denounces that the plants are located in the urban area of Castejón, 500 meters from the dwellings, and that if they continue there they will continue to generate acoustic pollution, “as companies are indirectly recognizing”. Companies argue that this is an existing facility that cannot be modified.

As far as the law is concerned, the High Court of Justice of the State has already justified the citizens of Castejón when they have asked for the closure of the plants, but Subai complains that companies and the administration have so far sought redress for the plants to remain open and that, in his opinion, “the only possible execution of these judgments is the dissolution of the plants”.