Environmental permitting of three wind farms with a shared evacuation line in Conca de Barberà

auma drafted and consolidated the full environmental and land-use documentation —environmental impact assessment (EIA), specific action project (PAE) and landscape impact and integration study (EIIP)— for three independent wind farms sharing a single high-voltage evacuation line in Conca de Barberà (Tarragona). The complete documentation package was delivered in under three months for a renewable energy developer.

Project overview

The challenge

Delivering the complete technical and environmental documentation for three wind farms which, although permitted as independent projects, share the same high-voltage evacuation line. The calendar was demanding and the project posed three main difficulties:

• High documentation volume: over 3 GB of documents and mapping across the farms and the evacuation line.
• Iterative review: developer comments on one of the farms arrived just one month before final delivery.
• Separate permitting: the evacuation line required its own file before the authorities.

The auma solution

We adopted a modular documentation structure: an independent landscape study for each farm and a specific action project for the evacuation line integrating its landscape study as Annex I. This architecture enabled:

• Review and partial approvals in parallel across the three farms, so no farm delayed the others.
• Fast adaptation to developer comments on one farm without blocking the rest of the delivery.
• Administrative simplification: a single file for the evacuation line instead of two.
• GIS mapping segmented by discipline (turbines, roads, trenches and ducting) to ease technical review.

The result

• Complete technical delivery in under three months.
• 3 PAE + 3 EIIP for the farms, plus the evacuation-line PAE with its landscape study as Annex I.
• Detailed GIS mapping per farm, ready for review by the authorities.
• A validated, repeatable methodology for future wind projects with shared evacuation lines.

Integrating the EIIP as Annex I of the evacuation line's action project is an auma methodology: it simplifies permitting before the authorities and reduces the risk of inconsistencies between documents, while keeping the flexibility to adapt to changes in each farm.

Frequently asked questions

What does a wind farm environmental impact assessment (EIA) include?

The EIA describes the project and the alternatives considered, surveys the environment (vegetation, fauna and birdlife, landscape, heritage, noise), evaluates the impacts of each phase and defines preventive and corrective measures and an environmental monitoring programme, under Spain's Law 21/2013 on environmental assessment.

What documentation is required to permit a wind farm in Catalonia?

Besides the technical design, permitting requires the environmental impact assessment (EIA), the landscape impact and integration study (EIIP) and, on rural land, the specific action project (PAE), under Decree-Law 16/2019. For solar projects, see auma·Permitting Renovables 360°.

How is a wind farm's evacuation line permitted?

When the high-voltage line serves more than one farm, it can be processed as its own file. Integrating the landscape study (EIIP) as an annex of the line's action project reduces the number of files and guarantees consistency with each farm's documentation.

How long does wind farm environmental documentation take?

It depends on scope and field studies: bird monitoring may require a full annual cycle. Drafting and consolidating the documents, however, can be very fast: here, the complete package for three farms and the evacuation line was delivered in under three months thanks to the modular structure.

Why commission several wind farms to a single consultant?

Consistent environmental and landscape criteria, homogeneous mapping, a single point of contact with the authorities and the ability to review projects in parallel, cutting timelines and the risk of inconsistencies between files.