SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, presided over Monday in Chío, a town in the municipality of Guía de Isora, the official act to start work on the new submarine electrical link designed to connect the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera, a project which represents a milestone in the modernization of the electrical system of the Canary Islands and in the decarbonization plans scheduled for the archipelago.
The official ceremony for the start of the works was held in the area where the new Chío substation will be built and also included the participation of the president of Redeia, Beatriz Corredor; the Commissioner for the Promotion of Sustainable Energy in Island Systems, Marc Pons; the president of the Cabildo de La Gomera, Casimiro Curbelo; the first vice president and councilor for Innovation in the Cabildo de Tenerife, Enrique Arriaga, and the mayoress of Guía de Isora, Josefa Mesa, among other authorities present.
Ángel Víctor Torres referred in his speech to the fact that with this project, born from inter-administrative collaboration, “a great boost is given to the energy transition on the islands and a commitment to the green transformation and decarbonisation of the Canary Islands”.
Torres highlighted that this Red Eléctrica investment plan, defended and supported by the regional, island and local administrations, “is a key element in the energy transition that we want for the archipelago and is also part of the European and national objectives of decarbonisation of the economy, aspects all of which are included in the Canary Islands Strategy for Sustainable Development”.
The president stated that the submarine electrical interconnection between La Gomera and Tenerife [que se añade a la existente entre Lanzarote y Fuerteventura] “It will facilitate the reduction of electricity generation costs and will contribute to less foreign dependence on fossil fuels, while producing an environmental improvement on the two islands.”
This initiative in turn contributes to continue advancing in the greater participation of renewable energies in the energy balance of the Canary Islands (energy mix), which in this legislature, from the end of 2018 to 2022, have gone from representing 10.52% to reach 20.13%, which means that the contribution of clean energy in the Canary Islands energy mix has almost doubled. “A fifth of the electricity consumption on the islands already has a green, renewable, sustainable origin,” stressed the president of the Canary Islands.
The company Red Eléctrica (REE), a subsidiary of Redeia and responsible for the operation and transmission of electricity in Spain, has already begun work on the new submarine link. This is a new interconnection between islands that will be decisive in guaranteeing security of supply on La Gomera, enabling greater integration of renewable energies and achieving a reduction in global generation costs by linking the electrical systems of both islands.
Thanks to this new link, whose commissioning is scheduled for 2025, La Gomera will be able to generate and integrate a renewable contingent greater than the total demand of that island, thus reducing dependence on the El Palmar thermal power plant.
In addition, thanks to the interconnection, the Tenerife system will be able to integrate the surplus of renewable generation originating in La Gomera, thus reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and at the same time contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. .
“DETERMINING ROLE”.
The president of Redeia, Beatriz Corredor, highlighted at the ceremony the importance of this infrastructure due to “its determining role in advancing in the ecological transition, with critical importance for isolated systems such as that of the Canary Islands, in which energy autonomy means a security guarantee for the system as a whole”.
In this sense, he has valued the strategic role that Red Eléctrica is playing in this process in the autonomous community: “Our commitment to Canary Islands society is firm and lasting, as we have been demonstrating with projects of great strategic importance such as the submarine link between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura or the reversible pumping station of Chira-Soria”.
The president of Redeia also wanted to highlight the close collaborative relationship that exists with the Canary Islands institutions, both in the processing of essential projects and in the joint actions aimed at ensuring that “Red Eléctrica’s activity on these islands generates a positive impact on the population”.
It has highlighted projects of great social and environmental value in which the company participates, such as the renewed agreement for fire prevention; reforestation projects such as the one in Chajaña, within the Corona Forestal natural park in Tenerife or the preparation of the Action Manual for the conservation of wildlife in Tenerife.
For his part, the Commissioner for the Promotion of Sustainable Energy in Island Systems, Marc Pons, has indicated that “the Government of Spain wants to make the archipelagos the spearhead of decarbonization in our country. Territories on which to promote initiatives public-private solutions that can be replicated on the continent with the aim of accelerating an energy transition that Spain is leading at a European level and that there is no turning back”.
Pons added that “for this it is essential to understand the singularities of the island while defining specific strategies and actions based on the institutional agreement.” A good example of this are, says Pons, “the funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), with 700 million euros destined exclusively to promote actions that accelerate the energy transition of our islands or the nearly 2,000 million euros of the current planning of REE in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, with the aim of strengthening the transmission network and thus advancing in the guarantee and quality of supply”.
MORE ENERGY SECURITY.
The president of the Cabildo de La Gomera, Casimiro Curbelo, has stressed that the start of the works places the island closer to achieving the objectives set in terms of energy transition, in which this territory works to promote the implementation of renewable energies and Provide greater security to your current energy supply system.
In this sense, he specified that, with the commissioning of the five wind farms, during the next week, it will be possible to generate more energy than is currently consumed by the island and, thanks to the installation of the electrical interconnection, it will be possible to transport that surplus to Tenerife.
In his turn to speak, the first vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife and Minister of Innovation, Enrique Arriaga, highlighted “the effort that both administrations and companies have been making in recent years to reduce the carbon footprint” and valued “these works that Red Eléctrica is now undertaking”.
“Leaving a more sustainable planet with fewer emissions is an obligation that all policy makers have with society, and we must contribute tirelessly to achieve it. To achieve this, we must not only implement green energy but also promote research in this area.”
This new strategic project represents an ambitious challenge, given its technical complexity both in its terrestrial and underwater sections. No standard solutions have been applied, adapting all of them flexibly to the reality of the territory from all points of view: social, technical and environmental.
