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The installation of a wind park has social and economic benefits, not only for the company promoting it, but also for both the landowners and the staff employed in the different wind complexes, generating a significant number of staff and associated workers.
In 2008, the wind sector represented 1.2% of the GDP for Galicia, placing it almost at the same level as the dairy industry, fishing (disaggregated from conservation) and naval construction. Driven by an investment that represents 1.65% of the total investment made in Galicia and, at a full-time job creation rate of 12%, wind generation is on the way to becoming an important reference point in the Galician economy.
The best wind emplacements reach a working average equivalent to 2,530 hours throughout the whole of Spain. The Galician average rises to 2,830 hours, with some parks rising above 3,000 hours/year of electricity generated. The alternatives to breaking the new benchmarks are put through production restraining proceedings that make the process difficult, such as optimal re-powering of the existing parks, with the substitution of the existing aerogenerators for more efficient and powerful ones.
Wind energy is on the way to representing a solution which confronts the rise in consumption without entrusting this challenge to new conventional energy forces. The context is propitious for investment. Public opinion comes out as a majority in favour of this form of electrical generation and, furthermore the benefits transcend the purely economic. As such, wind energy represents a one-off and important opportunity for the Galician economy in that it provides the most advantageous production conditions. From here wind policy must be enacted based on a firm and stable structure.
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