Ramón Trujillo, spokesperson for United We Can (Izquierda Unida, Podemos, Equo) in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, denounces that the CC-PP government group spent at least 181,230 euros on seven photovoltaic panel installations that, in In some cases, they have been up to six or seven years without ever being connected.
These facilities, “at the time advertised by the government group as an expression of its commitment to renewable energy, are deteriorating outdoors, without maintenance, and irremediably shortening their useful life,” criticizes the councilman, citing as an example the photovoltaic installations installed in the primary and infant education centers of Tomé Cano, El Draguillo and Las Delicias. The installations with which they have been equipped should be providing around 20% of their respective electricity consumption, “but they have literally become a succession of toasts to the Sun,” laments Trujillo.
On the other hand, it points out that the 88 photovoltaic panels installed in 2015 in the municipal offices of Ofra have never worked and, in fact, constitute “a clear example of an outermost ceremonial photovoltaic installation”. In fact, he explains, “if it had been connected, that installation would supply only 8% of the building’s consumption because the municipal approach was very unambitious, even if it had worked.”
The government group provided United We Can with information on nine self-consumption facilities built to provide electricity from renewable sources. Currently, 77% do not work, nor have they ever worked, nor is it known if they will or when and with what added costs, after years of neglect, explains United We Can.
The photovoltaic installations that do work are those of the Local Police headquarters in Tres de Mayo, which produces the equivalent of 2.4% of the electricity consumption of that building, and those of the Taganana Forest House.
In short, United We Can denounce “another example of the normalization of the mismanagement carried out by the government of Mayor José Manuel Bermúdez, and the weakness of its sustainability policies.”
