SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife, through the public company Balsas de Tenerife (Balten), will increase the budget for implementing renewable energy in the island’s rafts by 6.2 million euros.
This new investment will make it possible to cover 90% of the energy consumption generated in 9 of the 21 ponds on the island with renewable energy.
The insular Councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, explains in a note that “this action is part of the Balten Energy Rebalancing Plan, to which 1.5 million euros are initially allocated and to which 6 million are now added ,2 million euros”.
Javier Parrilla points out that this is an innovative project that “will contribute to reducing the energy and environmental costs of these facilities, limiting CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, which will have an indirect impact on a decrease in the price of water for farmers. of the island”.
Along these lines, he adds that “regardless” of having the possibility of requesting European financing, the Cabildo has promised to finance this project. “We are not going to wait for the times in Europe, because we are talking about actions that are absolutely necessary for the island,” he affirms.
The project includes the installation of fixed and floating solar panels in the pools of Valle San Lorenzo (Arona), Lomo del Balo (Guía de Isora), El Saltadero (Granadilla de Abona) and Valle Molina (Tegueste). In the same way, the use of other renewable energy sources, such as hydroturbines, is being considered.
The island manager also announces that the installation of photovoltaic panels at the Santa Cruz Pumping Station has already been completed and that it will start operating next week.
Likewise, he comments that “work has already begun on the El Tablero deposit, also located in Santa Cruz, and the contracts have been awarded for the installation of solar panels in the hydraulic complexes of Isla Baja and Valle San Lorenzo.”
The counselor recalled that a pilot project for the installation of a system of floating solar panels on the San Antonio pond, in La Matanza, has also recently been presented, a pioneering initiative in the Canary Islands that will turn the San Antonio pond into a laboratory for floating photovoltaic technology, and whose conclusions will serve for the development and implementation of this technology on the island.
The project contemplates the placement of up to three different types of generators to study the performance of each of them and choose the most efficient option, which will be the one that is replicated in the rest of the ponds on the island.
