For the president of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carlos González, the disagreement produced between the institution he presides over and the Santa Cruz City Council has only been something specific that, from his point of view, should not cloud a relationship in the that the port and the city have no choice but to understand each other, and advances in this interview with DIARIO DE AVISOS that it will continue to authorize acts in the Los Llanos Basin, “as long as they are done rationally.” González is committed to focusing on the management of the multitude of projects that it faces throughout this year, ranging from the objective of installing the first offshore wind turbine in Spain in the port of Granadilla to supporting projects such as ship repair in Santa Cruz, which this year already has an investment of 30 million dollars.
-The disagreement between the City Council of Santa Cruz and the Port Authority in the port-city commission, is it something specific or do you think it will take its toll on the relationship between both institutions?
“In that meeting, many issues were discussed and I think we have to keep trying. We cannot focus only on Carnival, a party that, in the end, will be held in the first option, that of the Fairgrounds, which is the ideal place. In addition, in the event that it could not be held, we already advanced that there was the possibility of using the port space for 45 days, with 15 days for events, and thus not collapse not only the plot but the rest of the port facilities that are be affected.”
-What services were going to be harmed?
“With the passage of the public, it became necessary to cut the road that gives access to passenger transport companies. It also affected the start of the South Dock and the Los Llanos Basin. We, just to celebrate the Christmas concert, have to cut off the access roads for four or five hours to allow pedestrians to pass. One thing is one day and another to have to do that for 60 days”.
-Is the Port going to continue authorizing the use of the dock to the city?
“Until now, specific sports, cultural and musical events have been authorized, and they will continue to be authorized. It is not that it has to have a specific activity, that has different complementary uses of support and, above all, that have to do with the access of inter-island traffic vehicles. If there is something that is clear, it is that this space is part of the Port, so it must be given port content. So the activities that can be done will be done, as long as they are done in a rational way”.
-Beyond the Carnival, in that meeting topics of interest for the capital were addressed.
“Indeed. They are technical meetings in which different issues are addressed, which each party then has to transfer to their respective decision-making bodies. In that meeting we talked about the transfer of land, of spaces such as the Miguel Pintor Public School, which we maintain as we are on port land, and which we want to transfer to the City Council, the San Andrés highway or José Martín street, which we also intend to transfer to the City Council”.
-The installation of new companies in the port, on the land reclaimed from the sea of the Dársena Pesquera, was addressed. Do you have formal requests to occupy new spaces?
“Not yet, but we do have interested companies that have already contacted us to ask about the cost of the occupation and activity canon. It is clear that there is interest, but we have to take into account that we have gone through a COVID period that has reduced the investment capacity of companies.”
-Has freight traffic recovered?
“In the Port, merchandise traffic has decreased by 15% due to the effect of COVID and also due to the lack of activity in the tourism sector. What we did in 2021 was to lower the rates for ships and merchandise by 12.5%, and this year we lowered it another 5%, with the aim of capturing more traffic and more business volume for the Port”.
-One of the investments that is still waiting for better times is the port-city link project designed by Herzog & De Meuron. At what point is it?
“We were hoping to find a private investor to pay for part of the project, but, once again, COVID has stopped any type of private investment. Precisely, to prevent it from being paralyzed, we have submitted it to the call for the so-called CEF funds of the European Union. It is a mechanism to connect Europe that is aimed at the ports that belong to the trans-European transport network. What we have presented is a financing project so that the connecting wharf buildings become passenger terminal areas for inter-island traffic. They are funds that contribute 70% of the investment if they are granted”.
–Are you going to present more initiatives to these funds?
“Yes. We have presented five projects for a total amount of 191.3 million, and, of these five, the Ministry of Transport has already validated four for 104 million. Without this prior filter we cannot opt for the call for the CEF”.
-And what projects are they?
“One is the closure of the Ribera dock in the port of Granadilla, which is 35 million; another is the expansion of the port of Santa Cruz de la Palma by 125 meters, which is 15 million; also the closure by means of caissons of the area between the eastern dock and Cueva Bermeja, for 51 million, and, in addition, we have a smart port and green port project that has to do with the digital transformation of the Port Authority, with an investment of 3.4 million. And finally there would be the connecting dock, which is 87 million, although we have to clarify that it is not the entire Herzog & De Meuron project, but a part of it”.
-What do you mean?
“Because we have divided the project into smaller ones to facilitate its financing and execution. So the part of the marina building and the construction of an underground car park belong to the development of other projects that can receive financing from other parties”.
-What are the objectives set by the Port for 2022?
“One of the objectives is to obtain these funds, but also to continue with the idea of finishing the port of Granadilla and giving it content.”
–doWhat is the forecast for that port?
“There are short, medium and long term forecasts. In the short term, we already have the concession granted to Petrocan for 70 million euros, works that will start in a couple of months at the latest. This concession is the one that will allow the transfer of the refinery facilities from Santa Cruz to Granadilla, because, if not, they would not have where to take all the storage capacity. The construction of a 50-megawatt offshore wind farm, with a fixed foundation, for around 100 million has also gone out for competition proceedings this December. Right now we have the company that generated the competition procedure, and a second one that also wants to do the same type of project.”
-So, which of the two will do the project?
“You have to decide to which company it is awarded and, in case the two projects are very similar, the regulations tell you that you have to go to a tender. What is clear is that the demand for this type of project exists, it is not something that we take out and nobody goes”.
-What other initiatives do you foresee for Granadilla?
“We are also committed to ship repair, so that in the next Board of Directors we hope to grant the concession for the floating dock, which represents an investment of 25 million. With the transfer of the Santa Cruz in 2030, we plan in the future that this port will be the great center of naval repair”.
-It will be an eminently industrial port…
“Not only. We also have other ideas that may come out this year, such as, for example, installing floating photovoltaics in the southern mouth of Puerto Granadilla, which has calmer waters. We have in mind to install a floating generator and use the Granadilla dock for experimentation, to obtain energy from the waves, or the study of issues such as the corrosion of materials, aging, etc… In this way, the deepest areas of the port can be used to trials, especially for floating wind power and also for the use of unmanned autonomous vehicles that require great depths near the coast. In that sense, the port of Granadilla is ideal”.
-For what it counts, the port of Granadilla will be the great outpost of alternative energy sources.
“We must bear in mind that in the medium term, in 2040, all the electrical energy produced in the Canary Islands must come from renewable sources, and that has to come from offshore wind power. A type of energy that requires support in the ports, that needs a dock with draft and an esplanade. And there are two ports of these characteristics in the Canary Islands. The one in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the one in Granadilla. So all the offshore wind expansion in Spain, where there is still no windmill of this type, will start in the Canary Islands, and a large part will have to pass through Granadilla, which will be a benchmark”.
-With this development of the port of Granadilla, what margin does the port of Santa Cruz have to grow?
“Will keep growing. Looking to the future, it will specialize in everything related to cruise ship traffic, sports marinas and traditional cargo unloading, because the idea is that the entire industrial part be developed in Granadilla. However, there will continue to be industrial activity. For example, right now a repair is planned on the eastern dock that will involve an investment of some 30 million dollars in the next ten months”.
-Another of the projects that has been defended by the Port Authority is to bury the entrance to the Port through the Auditorium. Have you got a response?
“We are pending to make an agreement proposal to the Ministry of Public Works in this sense. We had already made a proposal that included Granadilla, but there it is more difficult to reach an agreement with the Ministry, so we have decided to separate them”.
-In Santa Cruz some investment projects have also been announced for its modernization…
“Specifically, there is a very interesting project that the Autonomous Community has as Perte (Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation) and that is the creation of the Energy Community of the Port of Santa Cruz with an investment of 113 million.”
-And what does it consist of?
“It is about making an energy community that would have the generation part, which would be to install photovoltaic on the roofs of all the ships and buildings in the port to generate about 30 megawatts, also place floating photovoltaic for another 30 megawatts. Likewise, it would carry green hydrogen generation and battery storage, and in terms of consumption, we would include one of the parts of the Herzog and de Meuron project that we mentioned before, and that would be an underground car park for 1,052 spaces for electric vehicles. Another part of the project would be to cover all the consumption needs of the Port to connect the ships to the docks. This is important for cruise ships, so that they can turn off their engines and connect to the port, which would avoid noise, vibrations, pollution…”.
– And the financing?
“At a given moment, the Government of the nation will tell the Canary Islands what Perte has prepared and it will be then when we know how much money we will have. One element of this community that has already gone through the bidding process is Totisa in Santa Cruz, for which it is used for the storage and supply of liquefied natural gas for maritime traffic and the generation of electricity for the port’s demand. Santa Cruz, as a port of the trans-European transport network, is obliged, as of 2025, to supply liquefied natural gas for ships and also electricity for ships. This project, which has come out for competition, will allow us, when 2025 arrives, to provide these two services. This represents an investment of 108 million made by the company, a project that will fit into the Perte, although it is not part of it”.
