Teruel existe presented this Thursday in the town of Escucha the Power Experience project, a strategic proposal that proposes to turn the mining and industrial heritage of the Cuencas Mineras and Andorra-Sierra de Arcos into an engine of development innovation, tourism and job creation.
The initiative proposes to articulate a circular route that connects spaces such as the Listening Mining Museum, the Utrillas Mining Park, the Escucha and Aliaga thermal power plants, the Aliaga Geological Park and other cultural, natural, and tourist resources of the territory, such as the Ariño and Segura spas and the Olivar Monastery. With this route, the project seeks to integrate existing heritage, tourism, scientific and energy resources into a single development model.
Power Experience also proposes the creation of an Energy and Technology Park that combines scientific dissemination, tourist experiences, research and innovation activities related to renewable energies, sustainability and new technologies. The project also contemplates the creation of an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Circle to promote the implementation of new companies, support cooperatives and the self-employed and promote initiatives linked to the circular economy, green industry, agri-food and tourism.
The project pursues three main objectives: to conserve and rehabilitate mining and industrial heritage; to promote cultural and scientific tourism linked to the history of energy and the energy transition; and to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and economic diversification to generate stable employment in the regions affected by the closure of mining and thermal power plants.
START ON LISTEN
The municipality where he has presented the proposal, Escucha, has a special role in the implementation of this project. The town of Las Cuencas Mineras has a thermal power plant that is complete and that, with an investment of about 4 million euros, can be rehabilitated to make it visitable. Teruel existe affirms that the thermal power plant and the Mining Museum can constitute a powerful offer of cultural tourism in themselves. Escucha would mark the beginning of the roadmap that would continue to take the project to the rest of the towns.
During his speech, the coordinator of Teruel existe has defended that Escucha represents one of the best examples of the enormous industrial and mining heritage that the province preserves and has stressed that this legacy «must become an opportunity for the future and not a memory condemned to abandonment».
AVOIDING DEMOLITION
Guitarte recalled that the demolition of the Andorra thermal power plant meant an irreversible loss for Teruel’s mining and industrial heritage and warned that this situation should not be repeated. «We still have time to preserve the extraordinary mining and industrial heritage that exists in our towns, and turn it into a source of economic activity, knowledge and employment,» insisted the coordinator of Teruel Existe.
The presentation held in Escucha is the starting point to publicize this initiative, with which Teruel existe proposes to open a process of collaboration between administrations, social entities, companies and municipalities that wish to promote the project.
