Bluma ST1 will have to pass an ordinary environmental assessment in Palma

The Bluma ST1 battery storage plant, located at industrial estate 39 plot 44 in the municipality of Palma, must undergo an ordinary environmental impact assessment because it is anticipated that it could have significant effects on the environment. This was resolved by the General Directorate of Urban Harmonization and Environmental Assessment of the Department of Housing, Territory and Mobility, in a report published in BOIB no. 141, dated November 5, 2026 (resolution 11165, exp. 126a/2025). The decision comes after four services of the Palma City Council had issued unfavorable reports on the project due to its location within the area of the Llevant Agricultural Park.

The document, electronically signed on June 29, 2026, by the general director Paz Andrade Barberá based on the technical report with a resolution proposal from June 22, starts from the processing as a simplified assessment provided for in Annex 2 of Law 21/2013, of December 9, on environmental assessment, for stand-alone energy storage with electrochemical batteries. The environmental body concludes, however, that the installation cannot remain on this path and refers it to the ordinary procedure, with a full environmental impact study that must also serve as a scoping document.

Seventeen containers, two power stations and 1,470 meters of line

The project described in the resolution consists of a grid-connected lithium-ion battery storage plant, with the following characteristics:

• Power limited at the inverter output to 10 MW and storage capacity of 40 MWh, designed for a four-hour discharge.
• 16 containers divided into two groups of eight, one for each power station, with a minimum separation of 3 meters between them and 4 meters from the stations.
• Two power stations with two inverters and one transformer each, with underground cabling in trenches 400 mm wide and 730 mm deep.
• Liquid cooling for the cells and an underground evacuation line of 15 kV and 1,470 meters to the Endesa Sant Joan 15 kV distribution substation.
• A 2-meter high hunting fence with a minimum light passage of 30x20 cm for small mammals.
• A plot of 2.9 hectares, of which the project would occupy approximately 4,004 square meters.

Four unfavorable municipal reports due to the Agricultural Park

The environmental body consulted about twenty administrations and entities. The municipal reports are blunt:

• Building Permit Processing Service (July 2, 2025): reports unfavorably because the use is conditional and the need to be located on rural land is not justified, due to the lack of transitional regulations in the agricultural park and the lack of landscape justification under article 210 of the PGOU.
• Urbanization and Infrastructure Control Service (July 9, 2025): unfavorable, because the plot is entirely within the Llevant Agricultural Park, where the PG2023 prohibits any installation until the approval of the special regulation plan; proposes as an alternative the rural land closest to the substation, south of MercaPalma.
• Planning Technical Services (July 18, 2025): unfavorable, as the proliferation of uses assimilable to industrial ones on rural land undermines the objectives of the PG2023 and significantly affects the quality of the landscape.
• Urban Planning Department (July 25, 2025): unfavorable regarding the project submitted for public exhibition.

Other reports are favorable or without opposition: Climate Change and Atmosphere Service (August 28, 2025, favorable with conditions), Environmental Health Service (May 27, 2025, conditionally favorable), General Directorate of Emergencies (March 26, 2026, favorable), Red Eléctrica (no opposition to the plant, but with impacts on three 66 kV underground lines), Telefónica (no objection) and Redexis, which confirms impact on the SANSÓN primary gas pipeline. The Mobility Service of the Consell de Mallorca (September 30, 2025) reported unfavorably on the layout of the evacuation lines.

Thermal risk, homes within 50 meters, and doubts about renewable origin

The resolution maintains that the BESS system fits into typology E-5 of the Insular Territorial Plan, but that Rule 7.4.4 of the PG2023 only allows small infrastructures, up to 200 square meters, and that other unforeseen uses remain prohibited. It also questions whether it can be charged with renewable surpluses: with data from Red Eléctrica as of December 31, 2024, around 70% of the energy generated on the islands comes from non-renewable sources and only 14% is insular renewable, meaning the total renewable coverage stands at around 25.9%.

Furthermore, the plant is projected about 50 meters from an isolated dwelling, while the criteria of the same general directorate set a minimum distance of 100 meters, and the thermal runaway of the lithium batteries and the risk of fire have not been sufficiently assessed. The new layout of the line, 3.8 kilometers long, runs about 520 meters off-road and 714 meters through private plots, and nearly half is in a flood-prone area. Moreover, the chosen alternative is located in a transition area and within the agricultural park, while the discarded one was on general rural land.

Thirty days of public information

The report obliges the substantive body to submit the project and the environmental impact study for public consultation for a period of no less than thirty days, with publication in the BOIB and on the electronic office, and to simultaneously consult the affected administrations, including the Directorate General of Natural Environment and Forest Management, the Insular Directorate of Territory and Landscape, the Public Hydraulic Domain Service, the Palma City Council, Red Eléctrica, Endesa, AESA, Telefónica, Redexis, and the GOB. The resolution is not appealable in itself, without prejudice to the appeals that may apply against the act of project authorization.

The ruling leaves Bluma ST1 on the most demanding step of the environmental processing and extends the uncertainty over one of the largest storage projects planned in the Sant Jordi Plan. For the residents and the agricultural sector of Llevant, the decision confirms that the location on protected rural land continues to be the main obstacle, while for the developer it means having to redo the impact study and justify alternative locations in the face of the express opposition of up to four municipal services.

Source: Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands, no. 141, November 5, 2026, section III, pp. 62221-62233 (official reference: 1232210).