The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Catalina Cladera, has announced the purchase of the Alcanada thermal power plant. At a ceremony to announce the purchase, Cladera was accompanied by the president of the Government, Francina Armengol, the general manager of Endesa, Martí Ribas, and representatives of the Alcúdia town council.

“We are recovering the Alcanada power station. From today this place is the heritage of all Mallorcans,” said Cladera, who remarked that it is now definitively preserved from any attempt to alter its physiognomy. The president explained that with this purchase the Consell is taking a definitive step towards the protection of this entire environment, the decontamination and rehabilitation of the industrial remains.

At the beginning of this year, the Heritage Commission of the Consell urged the start of the proceedings for the declaration of the Alcanada power plant as an Asset of Cultural Interest. This declaration will be final in 2023 and recognises the heritage and historical value of this industrial architecture complex, the power plant designed by Vázquez Molezún, and the annexed settlement designed by the Mallorcan architect Ferragut.

The Consell is now working to lay the foundations so that the whole of Mallorca can admire and enjoy these facilities with a project that is “very ambitious, as is l’Alcúdia Tech Mar”, said Cladera. For her part, the President of the Government stressed the importance of its recovery: “This space gives us many opportunities, because it has a very strong historical significance, with roots in the history of Alcúdia and the island. We are updating the industrial heritage to the needs of the 21st century, directing it towards green and clean energies,” she said.

consell compra alcanada

Decontamination

The Consell de Mallorca already plans to begin decontamination of the land and facilities by 2023. That is why the budgets that are expected to be approved at the end of the month already set aside one million euros to project this decontamination, with the presence of fibre cement and asbestos. The subsoil will also have to be checked to remove possible spills of fuel oil or heavy metals.

The recovery of Alcanada will become more visible in a second phase, which contemplates the restoration of the most emblematic parts of the plant: the two emblematic chimneys, the buildings where the generators are located, the control rooms, the pipelines, the coal conveyor belt and the concrete canopy.

The first of Alcanada’s three turbines was commissioned in 1957. For 25 years Alcanada supplied electricity to a large part of Mallorca, in a location that allowed the easy supply of coal and other supplies from ships arriving at the port. The construction of the more modern and efficient Murterar power station made this infrastructure obsolete. It ceased to produce electricity in 1982. The area has been degraded by the years of inactivity. At present it is not possible to visit the different buildings for security reasons.