Climate Politics
Spain’s Rural Areas Are Backing Wine Over Wind Farms
The nation’s ambitious 2030 clean energy goals mean more renewable installations in rural regions, and it’s further inflaming tensions between cities and agrarian villages.
For over four decades, Maria Jose Nestares’ family has quietly run a vineyard in the Spanish northern region of La Rioja, one of Europe’s largest wine-producing areas.
But about four years ago, when a major turbine maker started building a wind farm next to her winery, she decided to pick a fight with what she sees as a nasty infringement on the otherwise pristine, bucolic community.