The Minister of Ecological Transition, Jose Antonio Valbuenaannounced this Friday a “next definitive solution” for the installation of the first hydroelectric power plant in Salto in Tenerife, on the line of the chira jump, a project that together with the implantation of marine energies offshore the introduction of more onshore wind and photovoltaic parks, as well as the strengthening of self-consumption will make “Gran Canaria on the first Canary Island that, without the possibility of connection with continental Europe, manage to be one hundred percent neutral in gas emissions into the atmosphere”, even before the challenge that has been set by the regional government for the entire Archipelago in 2040.
Regarding the “great jump from Tenerife”, Valbuena affirmed that there “two alternatives” and that either of the two can be the best solution for this project, and he stressed that he hopes to present one of them to the public shortly.
The counselor intervened yesterday in the Electric Network Forum organized by Prensa Ibérica in the Canary Islands, whose headlines in the Islands are THE PROVINCE/JOURNAL OF LAS PALMAS and EL DÍA, together with the president of the Island Council, Antonio Morales, and the directors of the company.
Both leaders asserted that they are working in coordination and with the municipalities to try to debureaucratize the implementation of renewable energies such as wind farms, windmills offshore or the Salto de Chira itself, whose environmental approval has been made in a record way, “in just over a year,” the councilor remarked.
Valbuena highlighted the importance of the Canary Islands having good planning “to give certainty and security to investors.” In this sense, he assured that they are currently working on planning so that the Canary Islands can have own energy market. When the approval Climate Change Law in Parliament“we will have approved the energy planning of the Canary Islands where the specific spaces will be defined to develop the different plans and infrastructures of the Islands”, he explained.
In addition, at the end of the month, the Canary Islands Energy Observatory that it will have a technical working group so that “shortly” they can have a proposal to present to Spain regarding regulation of the electricity system in the Canary Islands.
“We need a specific regulation, the norms of the European continent or the peninsular territory are not valid for us, they are outdated,” he said. In his opinion, it is necessary strengthen energy transport networks and regulations in the Islands to be able to reach the introduction of renewable energy more easily and “democratize” it so that it can reach the citizens and in addition to promoting self-consumption.
“We have to aspire to have a Canarian market of our own and gradually wean the Islands off their energy dependency; a market of our own where we regulate storage systems, which is also a commercial opportunity for large companies,” he stressed.
In his opinion, obviously the environmental procedures, in that they do not last forever, but “the environmental procedure is vital, it is key”he sentenced, and insisted that in Salto de Chira, the Canarian Government has acted quickly to unblock the environmental report of this project.
