A total of 88 families in Tenerife have installed photovoltaic panels in their homes thanks to a national cooperative: Som Energía. After calling for two collective purchases by this non-profit company, called Solar Eruption 1 and 2, these islanders have opted for the self-generation of renewable energy to help reduce pollution, reduce dependence on multinationals in the sector and face the rise in energy prices, especially electricity, which has skyrocketed in recent months.
Som Energía was born in Girona in 2010 but due to the interest of users from the rest of the country it decided to expand. It currently has 81,000 members in 9 Spanish autonomous communities, including the Canary Islands. And they have already made 50 collective purchases throughout the national territory. Som Energía lands in Tenerife in 2016. This association of users and consumers of electricity is responsible for promoting photovoltaic installations.
The idea is to develop the projects in a collaborative and group manner. The objective of these collective purchases is to reduce assembly costs, to try to reduce the price of the installation as much as possible and in this way the members can acquire a self-produced photovoltaic installation in the best conditions. Rubén Fuentes, from San Juan de La Rambla, is one of the people from Tenerife who has opted for this alternative path of Solar Eruption. “It has been a great decision to include renewable energies in my day to day,” he says. In the first call they signed up, through the Som Energia website49 families from Tenerife, and in the second there are already 39. Although this second call has exceeded the goal of 30 users, registrations for Solar Eruption 2 are still open.
The prices of these systems range from 4,300 to 7,800 euros for each home
In the Canary Islands, to carry out the Solar Eruption project, two other local cooperatives collaborate with Som Energía: Sustainable Projects for Water, Energy and Agroecology (AEATEC) and Ecooo. And it is that one of the values that Som Energía supports is the local economy. For this reason, they launched a contest to find partners from the province of Tenerife. «The idea was not for a company to come from Madrid, which could be cheaper. We want part of the money to stay in the local market,” explains Jorge Prieto, a collaborating partner belonging to the Tenerife group.
The service of these two cooperatives includes a first technical visit, which allows the interested party to be guided on the best option that suits their home. For example, the hiring of kilowatts, that is, the amount of power that the property demands at a given time. The price also includes the legalization procedures, the management of subsidies or bonuses, and a five-year guarantee by the installation companies. For the realization of the first installations, Jorge Prieto explains the complication that the coincidence of the pandemic had with the start of the project: «In the end we had to delay it until the end of summer».
Also included in the price is the registration of the installation in the Ministry of Industry. In addition, the simplified compensation mode is now contemplated. “There is a reduction in the electricity bill for each kilowatt produced by the panels and transferred to the electrical network,” explains Rubén Fuentes. Next, the cooperative is in charge of speaking with the distributor (Endesa in the case of the Canary Islands) in order to carry out this reduction. Rubén Fuentes explains “the multiple benefits” that the Solar Eruption project entails. “The environmental benefits are key, since greenhouse gases are no longer being emitted locally. And as for the economy, I like to know that the money I invest stays in the Islands, because they are cooperatives of the province».
Rubén Fuentes, a member of San Juan de la Rambla, celebrates having opted for renewables
The program offers seven settings. Prices range between 4,300 and 7,800 euros, in the case of single-phase installations; that is, the wiring that the vast majority of houses and apartments have. Other prices range from 7,400 to 9,600 euros for triphasic installations, which are usually found in commercial buildings.
This initiative has been more successful than expected due, in part, to the energy crisis, which is especially affecting Spain and is reflected in the electricity bill. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), for an average consumer the increase in the electricity bill has been 40.5%, with respect to the average bill for 2020. The increase in the cost of conventional electricity leads many families to consider the use of photovoltaic panels in their homes.
17.5% of the energy consumed in the Canary Islands comes from renewable sources, according to the latest data for 2020. According to the energy yearbook, prepared by the Government of the Canary Islands, almost 67% of the renewable energy in the Archipelago corresponds to to wind power and 29% to photovoltaic. The difference with the Peninsula is revealing. The percentage in Spain of clean energies is 46.7%, with an advantage of almost 30% when the Archipelago is the region with the most raw material for renewables.
