SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife, through the public company Balsas de Tenerife (Balten), will conclude at the end of September the first phase of the 2022-2030 Energy Rebalancing Plan, a project aimed at the implementation of renewable energies in the island’s rafts .
The acting Island Councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, explained that this first phase will produce 1,037,435 kilowatt hours (kWh) and will mean an annual saving of 400 tons of CO2. In this sense, Parrilla stressed that a forest mass of 1,000 hectares would be necessary to absorb these emissions.
The island official wanted to recall that the production of desalinated water entails a considerable energy cost. “In fact, electricity supply represents more than 30% of Balten’s operating costs, hence the importance of promoting renewable energy in the island’s reservoirs and ponds,” he added.
The 2022-2030 Energy Rebalancing Plan contemplates a global budget of 7.7 million euros. This first phase, started in 2021 with an endowment close to one million euros, includes the installation of photovoltaic generators in four of the Balten facilities with the highest consumption.
The Cabildo has so far completed the photovoltaic installation of the Santa Cruz Pumping Station and the El Tablero reservoir, also located in the capital of Tenerife. Likewise, it is expected that the installation of the Valle San Lorenzo and Isla Baja hydraulic complexes will be completed before the end of September.
Phase II of the plan, endowed with close to half a million euros, will be more focused on investment in studies, technical projects and interventions to improve electrical panels and existing facilities. However, it also contemplates the start-up of the pilot project for the installation of a system of floating solar panels in the San Antonio pond, in La Matanza.
This initiative, a pioneer in the Canary Islands, will allow the performance of these facilities to be compared with those on land, “in order to choose the most efficient option, which will be the one that we will replicate in the rest of the ponds on the island,” Javier Parrilla abounds.
The floating photovoltaic plant will generate about 160,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually, with an emission saving of 124 tons, which would be equivalent to planting about 6,200 trees. Floating solar panels reduce evaporation by up to 33 percent, improve water quality (by generating shadows that prevent eutrophication), and favor the maintenance of the ponds, by producing less sludge. In addition, they do not consume land and generate 10 percent more energy when the panel is cooled.
