Solar park boom threatens Spain's centuries-old olive trees

Lopera, Spain. Along with its centuries-old olive trees, Francisco Campos looks worried about the green tapestry that surrounds his town in southern Spain, where neighbors struggle to prevent the installation of photovoltaic plants from forcing thousands of trees to uproot: “Tapping olive trees to put solar panels is a crime,” he says.In Lopera, an Andalusian town of 3,600 inhabitants, 200 kilometers northeast of Seville, almost everything has t…

Solar power vs olive oil: Farmers in Andalusia protest as solar farms threaten centuries-old olive groves

LOPERA (Spain), April 14 — At his farm in southern Spain, Francisco Campos looked worriedly at a green sea of centuries-old olive trees that he fears will face the axe to make way for a proposed solar park. “Cutting down olive trees to install solar panels is a crime,” the 64-year-old farmer told AFP in Lopera, a town of whitewashed buildings with 3,600 residents in the sunny southern region of Andalusia, Spain’s olive-growing heartland. Spain i…

'It's a crime': Solar park boom threatens Spain's olive tree growers

In the Andalusian village of Lopera, olive trees owners struggle against expropriation and to prevent the installation of photovoltaic plants forcing thousands of trees to be uprooted.

Solar park boom threatens Spain's centuries-old olive trees

At his farm in southern Spain, Francisco Campos looked worriedly at a green sea of centuries-old olive trees that he fears will face the axe to make way for a proposed solar park.

Solar park boom threatens Spain’s centuries-old olive trees

At his farm in southern Spain, Francisco Campos looked worriedly at a green sea of centuries-old olive trees that he fears will face the axe to make way for a proposed solar park. "Cutting down olive trees to install solar panels is a crime," the 64-year-old farmer told AFP in Lopera, a town of whitewashed

In the small Andalusian village of 3,600 inhabitants, in the province of Jaén, almost everything has to do with olive oil. But the fertile land near the Guadalquivir River has also attracted large energy companies such as Greenalia or FRV Arroyadas, which have applied for permission to install several photovoltaic parks in the area. "Our way of life is about to end," worry many local farmers.