The Island Council of Tenerifethrough the Insular Water Council (CIATF), and the University of La Laguna (ULL) have recently formalized a collaboration agreement through which they will develop a research project so that the Adeje-Arona regional treatment plant can be self-sufficient with solar energy. This initiative, called Photoedarraises the optimization of the self-sufficiency of this Industrial water treatment (WWTP) of the main tourist area of Tenerife. The project includes a detailed study of energy expenditure “through analysis models of the plant’s facilities, operations and consumption”.
The Councilor for Sustainable Development and the Fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Javier Rodriguez Medina (PSOE)highlights that “with the start-up of this project we intend to reduce the ecological footprint of the purification activity and, consequently, the cost of the electricity bill it generates”.
The island councilor also emphasized that the collaboration with the University of La Laguna translates into “the promotion of the integration of renewable energies that contribute to energy efficiency, receiving technology transfer and knowledge that allow improving the current situation of purification also in the rest of the island of Tenerife». In his opinion, this project advances in the direction of “achieving lower energy consumption and lower pollutant emissions in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and more specifically, the one related to guaranteeing access to affordable, safe, sustainable and modern energy for all with photovoltaic energy accompanied by batteries.
This project will also include an analysis of the energy consumption of the plant located in the municipality of Adeje, and the simulation of the optimal configuration of the photovoltaic plant with and without batteries, as well as in direct connection to the WWTP or through the use of the 20 kV network. This treatment plant doubled its wastewater treatment capacity in the summer of 2020, reaching 40,000 cubic meters per day.
This project will be developed through the research team led by Ricardo Luis Guerrero Lemus, professor in the Department of Physics at the ULL, who has recognized experience in this field. Guerrero is a doctor in Physical Sciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid, professor of Applied Physics at the University of La Laguna and director of the Master’s Degree in Renewable Energies at the ULL.
