“Our schedule establishes that next summer the initial phase of surface exploration will conclude and in the first half of 2025 we can begin with the punctures (tastings) in the areas to be determined.” He affirms it Minister of Innovation, Research and Development of the Tenerife Council, Juan José Martínez, regarding the imminent start of the process to exploit geothermal energy, the energy from the heat of the earth on the Island. The proposal prioritizes the western area, although the definitive mining concessions have not yet been granted. Martínez affirms: “In this case the money arrived before the license.” The state, through Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, will provide with 43 million to the proposals approved in the Tenerife island geography. Among them, the alliance formed to face this costly initiative by the Technological Institute of Renewable Energy (ITER), dependent on the insular corporation, and Disa. The subsidy will cover only half of the project; The other 50% corresponds in this case to the public-private initiative. The president of the Cabildo, Rosa Davilavalues, for his part: «There are great possibilities of success and if so we will have largely resolved the energy supply of Tenerife for the near future. He adds that “it would be renewable, sustainable and, above all, continuous energy.”
Satisfaction
Martínez was “happy and satisfied” with the award of the Ministry’s aid for geothermal exploration on the Island because ITER, together with its partner, Disa, is awarded “a very important volume of the item.” Specifically, between a minimum of 28 and a maximum of 43 million, since it is not the only project presented and approved. The counselor remembers that “the subsidy is conditional on obtaining the definitive mining concession and, for the moment, we have the provisional one.” In other words, “financial aid arrives sooner than the specific official place to do the prospecting.” He adds that “this public contribution is half of the costs; “The other part will be provided by the partners.” Martínez emphasizes: “The first phase of surface exploration” will determine “the possibilities in each grid – the technical name for mining operations – into which the exploitable area is divided to prospect, reach and extract energy.”
Distribution
The counselor did not want to advance the specific geographical distribution of future farms because “the grids extend over several municipalities.” There will also be technical difficulties due to the orography of the Island that will force punctures at a depth of two kilometers. Whatever and where it may be, the result will be clean energy in sufficient quantity to replace the current fossil energy. Unlike other renewables such as photovoltaics and wind, which depend on the sun and wind, it is continuous and its supply is permanent. Its impact on the territory is very small compared to the others, it does not generate greenhouse gases and the only waste it causes is water vapor. Rosa Dávila and Juan José Martínez wanted to highlight “the great work carried out by the ITER technicians and especially Involcan, with Nemesio Pérez at the helm, to establish the criteria and develop the proposals that in the end have been successful.”
Industry
The Department of Industry of Government of the Canary Islands Last December, it accepted the dozen proposals presented by four companies to investigate Tenerife’s geothermal resources in the awarded grids. At the beginning of the year, the General Directorate of the area had declared the expiration of several licenses, which opened the door to apply to analyze the viability. Repsol, Unelco Endesa, Geothermal Energy of Canary Islands (subsidiary of the energy company DISA) and ITER. These last two form an alliance. The total of declared free lands is 3,089 mining squares. The majority are located in the west of the Island, but in a subsoil that is distributed as if they were plots. With names as bizarre for their translation into territorial reality as Jaira, Tahatan and Tikahit; Barranco Hondo, which is not the neighborhood of Candelaria, Hoya Negra and Retamar or Perenquén, Chuchanga and Pimelia. These provisional permits prior to the definitive license allow the holders “the right to carry out, within the demarcated perimeter and for a certain period, studies and work on possible mining resources.”
West
Although the Cabildo sources did not want to advance it, the exploitation permit would correspond to the west of the Island, specifically to territories of the municipalities of Los Silos, El Tanque, Santiago del Teide and Buenavista del Norte with 63 grids and junction points between its territorial limits. The work must be especially rigorous in protecting the environment on an Island with 48% of its geography protected and with natural spaces of enormous importance close to the proposed area such as the Chinyero Reserve, the Teno Rural Park or the Natural Park of the Forest Crown. The grant from the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) aims to “facilitate the preparation of feasibility studies that evaluate and analyze the potential of geothermal sites.” This would be “the previous step to determine the necessary resources to carry out, in the first place, the exploitation projects and, as a culmination of the process begun, achieve the success of extracting geothermal energy.”
