Valencian engineering company Vielca Ingenieros has renewed its commitment to PowerCo Spain until 2027. The firm, which has been supporting the gigafactory project in Sagunto since the beginning, will continue to provide its permitting assistance services, which consist mainly of the analysis and processing of the necessary permits to operate.
According to Constan Amurrio, head of the engineering company’s Environmental Department, “our job is to study, adapt, and fit this project into all the local, regional, national, and even European regulations related to its activity; as well as to support and accompany the company in obtaining all the permits through high-level technical advice. It is the first gigafactory of this magnitude in Spain, so it is easy to imagine the challenge and responsibility that this entails for our teams.”
A strategic project
However, this is not the only service that the engineering company provides to the German multinational belonging to the Volkswagen group. Vielca Ingenieros was responsible for preparing all the necessary documentation in 2022 so that the project could be declared a Strategic Territorial Project (PTE) by the Valencian Regional Government; and, in addition, it prepared the Integrated Environmental Authorization (AAI), the main activity permit required by PowerCo, which was approved by the Valencian Regional Government last April.
“It has been the largest integrated environmental permit processed to date in the Valencian Community and possibly in Spain,” Constan Amurrio points out after explaining that it is a procedure “that reviews in detail all the implications derived from the factory’s activity that can have an impact on the environment to ensure the highest level of environmental protection of the environment and the least possible impact, ensuring that the company uses all the technical improvements available in the market.”
Similarly, Vielca has also participated with PowerCo in the preparation of geotechnical studies and is advising the company on the legal requirements and standards that the machinery
and equipment to be used in the plant must meet in accordance with current regulations. In addition, in the area of aid and subsidies, Vielca is responsible for preparing the so-called DNSH report, which certifies that a project does not harm the environment, and is essential for receiving European aid.
Another service currently provided by the Valencian firm is Environmental Compliance. Once the Integrated Environmental Authorization (AAI) resolution is obtained, Vielca’s team ensures that all the instructions outlined in the AAI are followed during the construction phase. “To that end, we have two technicians on the ground at all times, who check that absolutely everything that is projected is carried out in accordance with the law and reality,” Amurrio indicates.
A paradigm shift in the Comunitat
For Constan, the PowerCo project brings a paradigm shift in the economic model in this Comunitat, “being pioneers in Spain in the promotion of electromobility through a gigafactory for batteries, which is a real challenge for our engineering.” On the one hand, he assures, due to its size (the plot’s surface area exceeds 130 hectares); due to the uniqueness of the product’s manufacturing itself, as it is an industry that has not existed in Spain until now; and, thirdly, “due to the high demands in terms of respect for the environment that current regulations require, but also those that the company itself has decided to incorporate.”