The Municipality of El Rosario has presented the project of the Local Energy Community (CEL) El Rosario Solar to the business fabric of the El Chorrillo-San Isidro industrial estate, known as La Campana. This industrial enclave is the place chosen to develop this energy model with which, through green energy, its members will be able to produce, manage and consume electricity generated cleanly, self-managed and non-profit. The great advantages of this model for companies, on whose roofs the industrial buildings would install the bulk of the planned photovoltaic panels, lie in a significant tax reduction of Real Estate Tax (IBI) and in the notable decrease in the electricity bill.
The mayor of El Rosario, Escolástico Gil, the councilor for Ecological Transition, Fidel Vázquez, and the manager of the company in charge of the project, Julián Monedero, explained for almost three hours on Monday the main characteristics of the local energy community of El Rosario. They did so in front of some thirty businessmen and ship owners from the estate, including the president of the Conservation Entity, Facundo García, who showed great interest in the initiative. The meeting was also attended by the first deputy mayor, Sara Cabello, and the councilor for Works and Urbanism and representative of the City Council in the Conservation Entity, Juan Jesús del Rosario.
The first mayor explained that “now is the time to take one of those trains that only pass once”, referring to the great expectations of implementation of this type of communities throughout Europe and their ability to subsidize. In addition, he shared with the attending business fabric the need to reconvert the current model of the industrial estate into a commercial park, with a clear reference such as the Melenara (Telde) business park, and to continue as an example, in terms of the use of renewable energies. , to the industrial zone of Arinaga (Agüimes), two important industrial centers of Gran Canaria.
In addition, Escolástico Gil explained that the first park of photovoltaic panels is already being installed to serve the Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant (Edari) of La Campana, the first of its kind to be put into service in the Canary Islands.
The City Council, facilitator
For his part, the Councilor for Ecological Transition, Fidel Vázquez, explained that the CEL El Rosario Solar project is paid for by the City Council, which acts as a facilitator, and that it will be the members of the energy community who will have to decide on its legal formula, usually established as cooperatives or non-profit associations. He also specified that it will be the first in Spain to bring together the administration, citizens and companies.
The Solar Rosary has a double objective: support and reactivate the economy as an engine of employment and transform the current model of production and consumption towards environmental sustainability, decarbonisation and the reduction of the use of resources and the generation of waste. To this end, CEL will be articulated as a cooperative or association voluntarily owned by individuals and entities to manage and consume electricity from renewable sources.
The company Dobon’s Technology SL is in charge of carrying out the legal and technical assistance for the start-up of the CEL El Rosario Solar and the drafting of the four projects for the execution of the infrastructure associated with it, within the framework of the Plan Reactiva Canarias and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The El Rosario Solar self-consumption photovoltaic solar energy installation project will consist of the design of a series of photovoltaic installations on roofs in a collective self-consumption regime in the La Campana industrial estate and its electrical distribution microgrid. With an available area of 154,200 square meters and a total power to be installed of ten megawatts, the renewable energy generating activity located on the roofs can be consumed in the industrial buildings of the estate or in nearby residential areas such as Costanera, El Chorrillo and San Isidro .
pollution reduction
The commissioning of this community will promote the reduction of emissions from fossil fuel generation systems that, today, dominate the island’s electrical system, will increase the local use of surpluses, will reduce losses due to activities of transmission and distribution, as well as the needs for new medium and high voltage lines, and will create qualified and stable jobs together with strong social involvement. In addition, El Rosario Solar will also include the project to install photovoltaic canopies to recharge electric vehicles and a wind power generator. The proposed canopies would serve a triple purpose: provide shade for parked vehicles, supply energy from renewable sources, and serve as a supply point for electric vehicles.
