The Insular Water Council of Tenerife (Ciatf) allocates 2.8 million euros for the installation of photovoltaic panels in the seawater desalination plants of Abona, in Granadilla, and Fonsalía, as well as in the Las Charquetas reservoir, in Guía de Isora. The purpose is to achieve energy self-sufficiency and reduce the consumption of said facilities.
The president of the Council of Tenerife and the Insular Water Council, Pedro Martín referred to the “commitment of the current government group to improve the island’s hydraulic infrastructures.” In this context, he explained that “the installation of renewable energy in seawater desalination plants will reduce the expense related to the electricity consumption of these facilities.”
Martín Domínguez also recalled that the implementation of this type of resources “is a priority objective for the Cabildo.” In this regard, he mentioned the recent presentation of “a floating photovoltaic energy project in the San Antonio Raft, in La Matanza de Acentejo.” All this endorses that “we continue working to produce the change of model in a more sustainable and clean one and that, in addition, has an impact on economic savings.”
Javier Rodríguez Medina was insistent in ensuring that “we have to articulate measures to promote a transition towards a much more sustainable energy model.” The Councilor for Sustainable Development and the Fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo de Tenerife includes in this framework that “the complementation to the start-up of desalination plants is activated with also sustainable resources, such as the installation of solar panels that help to alleviate consumption electricity of said installations.
In this regard, he referred to the fact that “the Tenerife Island Water Council is working resolutely” to achieve the objective. “We are the largest consumer of electrical energy on the Island and we have achieved an absolute change of paradigm”, the island councilor remarked. Rodríguez Medina alluded to the fact that “since 2020, we have launched the use of renewable energy at Ciatf,” said the island councilor.
Seawater desalination stations are an alternative to the production of water from traditional resources, and their operation alleviates the consumption of water from galleries and wells.
The Granadilla desalination plant was handed over to the Cabildo after an investment of 16.5 million from the Ministry of the Environment, together with an investment of another 5 million made by the Island Corporation.
The Granadilla desalination plant, located in the industrial estate, benefits some 60,000 inhabitants of the municipalities of Arico, Granadilla, San Miguel and Arona. This infrastructure uses a reverse osmosis system to treat 14,000 cubic meters, an amount that can be increased to 21,000 cubic meters per day in a second phase and up to 42,000 in the future. It has cost 17.5 million euros
The seawater desalination plant in the West of Tenerife, whose works began in August 2010, cost almost 16 million euros. It is located in Fonsalía, in the municipality of Guía de Isora, and supplies water to more than 70,000 inhabitants of the coastal area of Guía de Isora and Santiago del Teide. This infrastructure uses a reverse osmosis system to treat 14,000 cubic meters per day in a first phase, expandable to 21,000.
The release of these amounts makes it possible to irrigate approximately 2,000 hectares of banana plantations with water from traditional resources.
