The incorporation of green hydrogen into future trains Canary Islands will materialize through the creation of storage batteries, the charging stations, which in the case of Gran Canaria It will be powered by electricity from the wind farm already planned in the area of Los Corralillos, near the Cruce de Arinagawith which the Southern railway will use two clean and sustainable energies. In Tenerife the two projects for the start-up of the trains have been in the making for years and are not so developed, but the Island Council has joined the commitment to this technology in recent months. The consistory even included last December in its budgets for the 2023 financial year two items for a total of 1.2 million euros for the Tren del Sur (700,000) and Tren del Norte (500,000) projects.
Pérez del Pino considers that the green fuel complements the provisions of the plan
Miguel Ángel Pérez del Pino, Vice President of the Council of Gran Canaria and Minister of Public Works and Transportrecalled yesterday that hydrogen in itself is not energy, but a storer, so it needs electricity and it has to be taken from somewhere, in the case of the Gran Canaria train, the windmills that will be installed in that area of the municipality of Agüimeshalfway to the railway line between the Santa Catalina station and the meloneras.
“The electricity that is needed to break the water molecule and store the green hydrogen will be taken from the train’s own wind farm,” explained Pérez del Pino, who is in Germany to learn about the new applications of this technology together with the Vice President of the Government of the Canary IslandsRomán Rodríguez, the Minister of Public Works and Transport of the Council of TenerifeEnrique Arriaga, and the regional councilor for Public Works, Sebastián Franquis.
“The plant is connected to an electric station, the water molecule breaks, hydrogen comes out, compacts and what is called an energy vector is produced,” explained Pérez del Pino from the city of Hamburg.
The visit began last Tuesday when the group of Canarian politicians went to the workshops of the German railway manufacturer Alstom. After the day, the members of the Executive announced their commitment to hydrogen as a green source to power Canary trains, although the projects will not materialize either in this or in the next legislature.
The European Union defines three categories of hydrogen: green, which is obtained through renewable energy; pink, which uses methane to produce electrolysis and is currently the most profitable; and gray, from fossil fuels such as coal. By way of example, he pointed out that France is betting on pink hydrogen because it has more sources of methane production.
Despite the impulse that the regional Executive wants to print, the initiative will take years to materialize
«The hydrogen that interests us for future Canarian railways is green, because it is what makes the engine The electric power of the trains works with that storage battery and the only waste it generates is water vapor and liquid water”, pointed out the vice president of the Cabildo, who denied that there is a contradiction between the use of green hydrogen and the project of a new park wind power exclusively for the railway.
The economic spokesperson for Nueva Canarias in the regional Parliament, Esther González, tHe also applauded yesterday the “involvement of the regional Executive” to promote green hydrogen in the train projects of both islands. It is the modality that “will allow us to get out of the unbearable loop, for longer, with more roads, more cars and more traffic jams,” he said.
