Spanish Residents Oppose Diamond Foundry Power Towers
November 16, 23
(IDEX Online) - Residents of a picturesque Spanish town are protesting over Diamond Foundry plans to install 40-metre high towers to power the $850m lab grown factory it is building there.
They are largely in support of the factory itself, which will create 300 jobs and ultimately produce 10m carats a year of single-crystal diamond chips, as well as traditional gem quality diamonds.
But they oppose plans to install the 22 towers in Trujillo, Caceres province, needed for the 5km of cables that will carry electricity to it from the El Berrocal solar photovoltaic plant.
"We consider this an outrage which is an attack on the city, the landscape and El Berrocal, a protected area," Lin Mateos, spokesman from the Save El Berrocal Platform.
Diamond Foundry, a Silicon Valley startup valued at $1.8bn that counts Leonardo DiCaprio among its high-profile backers, is building one of the first industrial projects in the world powered entirely by solar electricity.
The company says it is working to improve one particular tower that has attracted particular criticism.
General view of Trujillo.