The Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Canary Islands Government approved yesterday the environmental impact statement of the project for the submarine electrical interconnection between Tenerife and La Gomera, as announced by DIARIO DE AVISOS. The regional councilor of the Area, José Antonio Valbuena, stressed that, after passing this procedure, “the works will begin next year.” “In a period of two years we will be able to have a key interconnection for the energy transition in our Islands, since it will allow a greater penetration of renewable energies, and will provide stability and robustness to the electrical systems of both islands,” he said.
The Deputy Minister for the Fight against Climate Change, Miguel Ángel Pérez, celebrated the progress made in a project that “will facilitate the reduction of electricity generation costs and will contribute to our less dependence on fossil fuels and foreign fuels and the environmental improvement of the two islands”. Thanks to the submarine electrical interconnection between Tenerife and La Gomera, the conditions are established so that La Gomera can be, from the point of view of the network, the first island in the Canary Islands to produce more renewable energy than it consumes in the year, thus avoiding having to resort to other generating systems with fossil fuels, more expensive and polluting.
The electrical interconnection between the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera is a great global technological challenge, due to the depth of the link, the volcanic nature of the terrain and the abrupt orography, both terrestrial and underwater, being the deepest tripolar alternating current link in the world. world to date. The planned investment to make this interconnection possible exceeds 100 million euros, and the deployment time of the link and the construction of the two extreme substations will be around 24 months. The development of this interconnection completes other actions to reinforce the network that are being carried out in the west of Tenerife in accordance with current planning and to provide greater security to the electrical system and thus advance the energy transition objectives projected by the Canary Islands.
Curbelo: “it is Vital”
For his part, the president of the Cabildo de La Gomera, Casimiro Curbelo, affirmed yesterday that this infrastructure “is vital” to advance in the energy transition, the implementation of green energy facilities and provide security to the island electricity generation systems. “We are taking an unprecedented step that will allow us to provide security, based on a performance demanded for decades,” he said.
“This is a step that complements the set of measures that we have taken from La Gomera to bet on a cutting-edge and sustainable energy model, because no one can doubt the usefulness of the submarine cable and the contribution it will have to the energy transition goals that we have set ourselves”, he stressed.
