The State-owned City of Energy Foundation promoted this project, which involved the construction of two adjacent structures covering approximately 1.000 m². One is a 435,20 m² multi-tunnel greenhouse, and the other a 544 m² shade house. The primary purpose of these structures is to cultivate plant species for the reforestation of areas affected for decades by mining activity, mainly spoil heaps scattered throughout the El Bierzo region.
The City of Energy Foundation was created by the Spanish Government in May 2006, and among its aims is “the social and economic development of the El Bierzo region.” To this end, in 2008 it launched the CIUDEN Nursery Center in the town of Igüeña, a training and plant production center primarily for environmental restoration work in degraded areas. This center will consist of a main building housing offices, classrooms, restrooms, and changing rooms. It will also include a laboratory, a seed bank, five storage areas, two greenhouses, and a shade house.
The greenhouse currently under construction by IMA-MSC will be equipped with an automated roof ventilation system, allowing for the regulation of this crucial factor based on greenhouse temperature and wind speed. It will also feature a thermal screen with automatic retraction and extension, adjusting to variations in light intensity. Each tunnel within the greenhouse will contain two rows of growing tables, between which an automated irrigation system will be installed, consisting of mobile carts with misting irrigation. This cutting-edge technology will be used in a nursery that will not cultivate the typical species used in intensive agriculture, but rather seedlings of local ecotypes.
Alongside the construction of the greenhouse, work is underway on a shade house, which will also feature automated irrigation systems and has been designed taking into account the terrain's topography and the area's weather conditions. The main purpose of this structure will be to help seedlings, obtained after sowing in the greenhouse, adapt to the local climate.
Both facilities, the greenhouse and the shade house, are being built by staff hired in the occupational training program, the "Bierzo Alto" employment workshop, launched by the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs with support from the Ministry of Labor.
The work carried out by the City of Energy Foundation is undoubtedly an ambitious environmental restoration project that will help the El Bierzo region recover after decades of decline in the mining sector. This recovery will be achieved not only through the restoration of vegetation but also through the job creation generated by this activity.