The Office of Environment of the Consell de Formentera is expanding solar panel installations across various public buildings, including CEIP Sant Ferran de ses Roques, the Formentera Day Centre, Es Molí social building and tennis courts and the Nautical Sports Centre (CENF) of La Savina.

Work at CEIP Sant Ferran de ses Roques is already completed, with panels installed on the school's roof that will add 33.79 kilowatts peak (kWp) of clean energy to the 30.24 kWp already generated. Approval is forthcoming for expansion of the current installation on the Formentera Day Centre, which will bring total sustainable energy production at the building from 25 kWp to 125 kWp. The project also includes plans to install an electric vehicle charging point near the buildings. As for the Es Molí social building and tennis courts, crews have just completed works to guarantee electricity production totalling 16.79 kWp. The installation at the CENF, which will generate 13.08 kWp, is also underway.

Antoni Tur, environment councillor, said that the Consell "continues to develop the goals set out in the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and is committed to achieving EU targets for cutting green-house gas emissions with actions related to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources." In that connection, it is estimated that the new facilities, when fully operational, will prevent the emission of roughly 80 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Upcoming projects
The next projects that the Office of Environment is working on include photovoltaic pergolas across part of the Antoni Blanc Sports Centre car park, which will generate approximately 99 kWp, and five recharge points with 22 kWp of power each. Additional plans are being finalised to cover the main offices of the Consell de Formentera, in the Plaça de la Constitució, with an installation that will produce 17 kWp of clean energy.

Councillor Tur stressed that these actions, in addition to improving energy efficiency, "will help raise awareness about current actions among islanders who use the facilities and the public at large." The Consell is currently spearheading the creation of two energy communities in the area of Sant Francesc as part of VPP4 Islands. The initiative, which Formentera joined in 2020, incorporates technological innovation to promote the use of renewable energies in Europe.

In that regard, the Office of Environment is finalising the cross-cutting Action Plan for Climate and Sustainable Energy (PACES), which proposes varying lines of action and that will set the path forward for the island's energy policy.

8 February 2023
Communications Office
Consell de Formentera

The Office of Environment of the Consell de Formentera is processing 46 disciplinary proceedings for noise pollution in view of reports filed by Formentera Local Police last year. Most of the associated fines fall under Article 18 of the Municipal Ordinance for the Protection of the Environment and Health against Noise and Vibration Pollution, which prohibits disrupting collective coexistence. Violations are punishable by fines of up to €750 for minor offences and up to €3,000 for very serious offences. Under the ordinance, committing more than one minor offence in a period of fewer than two years is considered a serious offence, while more than one serious offence in the same period warrants a very serious offence.

New noise plan and modified ordinance
The Office of Environment is finalising the Municipal Action Plan on Noise, noise map and noise zoning map of Formentera. This plan "will help improve islanders' quality of life and our environment and will allow us to promote policies to improve environmental quality", said Antoni Tur, environment councillor.

The new noise plan "mean Formentera can modify its current ordinance, which dates from 2014, and study increasing fines." Likewise, the councillor stressed that "coordination with other competent administrations and security forces will be key to preventing noise pollution in sensitive and protected areas of the island."

The plan is divided into three phases. The first involves preparing the noise map and acoustic zoning; second, drafting the Municipal Action Plan on Noise; and third, a proposed modification of the current Municipal Noise Ordinance and the declaration of Special Noise Protection Zones (ZPAE). Moreover, given the uniqueness of the island, two different noise maps, for high and low season, have been established.

This document will mean urban planning and economic activity decisions can be evaluated according to acoustic criteria, and will put Formentera in line with European, state and regional regulations on noise pollution.

3 February 2023
Communications Office
Consell de Formentera

Today, on International Day of Environmental Education, the Office of Environment of the Consell de Formentera and IES Marc Ferrer have organised a series of visits to the waste treatment plant of Es Cap de Barbaria and the island's waste collection point (Deixalleria). Today's visit was made by secondary pupils in years one and two. Over four days various groups of pupils will visit the plant to learn about the island's waste circuit, from the moment objects land in the bin to how they are collected, compacted, sorted at the Deixalleria and shipped to sorting plants off the island for treatment, or to Eivissa's Ca Na Putxa landfill.

26 January 2023
Communications Office
Consell de Formentera

This morning, Ana Juan, president of the Consell de Formentera, opened Environment Days (Jornades de Medi Ambient), a conference organised by the University of the Balearic Islands and the Natural History Society of the Balearics that will run through tomorrow at Centre Antoni Tur "Gabrielet".

Juan welcomed attendees and hailed Formentera's first-ever hosting of the conference. "The research papers here presented show professionals' interest and concern for protecting the environment and for the future of our islands. As an island, we are particularly sensitive to these issues, and we can no doubt leverage much of the insight that emerges", she said.

Conferences are held Mondays and Tuesdays and offer a space for researchers and naturalists from various fields to present research and work on the Balearic Islands and the islands of Eivissa and Formentera in particular.

23 January 2023
Communications Office
Consell de Formentera