Canary Islands is on the verge of surpassing the gigawatt of renewable energy

In four years renewable power has increased by 345.9 megawatts. The commissioning of the distributed power in the Eolcan I (June 2019) and Eolcan II (May 2021) and Solcan (March 2021) calls has been final.

If the previous one was the unblocking -practically nothing had been installed since 1996- by the then counselor Pedro Ortega -today president of the Canarian Confederation of Entrepreneurs (CCE)-, this legislature has been to consolidate a trend that is required by the decarbonisation objectives set by the Archipelago itself and the European Union (EU).

Lhe 345.9 megawatts put into service since 2019 are 29.9% higher than the power installed during the 2015-2019 period. The increase in the presence of clean energy in four years -starting from 266.3 megawatts- has been 56.3%.

Disaggregating by type of energy, wind power is the great protagonist, with 612.74 megawatts (16.44% of the electrical mix). They are followed, in this order, by photovoltaics, 325.75 megawatts (3.82%); hydroelectric, 11.32 (0.23%); hydraulics, 2.02 (0.04%), and the remaining 8.75 megawatts that come from biogas. Therefore, the installed power of renewable origin accounts for 28.6% of all that installed in the Canary Islands, with 960.6 megawatts out of the total of 3,356.1.

The figures by islands show that Gran Canariawith 378.65 megawatts, and Tenerife, with 373.65, add up to 78% of the total renewable power of the Canary Islands. they follow him Fuerteventurawith 103.36, and Lanzarote, with 52.12 megawatts. This year, La Gomera has registered a significant increase, going from only 1.4 megawatts to 15.73. The commissioning of five wind farms, which share 11.75 megawatts of power, has been the differential fact. Finally, The iron has 23.63 megawatts and The Palmwith 15.73.

During the past year, electricity production from renewable sources exceeded by 85.2% that which existed in 2018. It was just at the end of that year (December 28) when Ortega announced the completion of 32 new wind farms that allowed a jump of 154.54% during that legislature. The new push given during this has allowed a 13.9% reduction in thermal production, heat provided by the combustion of oil.

Installed power is one thing and the volume of generation that can be met with it is another. The Canary Islands is a good example of this until infrastructures that allow the storage of excess renewable energy generated come into operation; the case of Salto de Chira. Currently, during the night the wind turbines have to be stopped because there is not enough demand to meet the production. No matter how much installed renewable power there is, not all the generation that it promotes can be used. Therefore, the percentage when measuring this variable is lower. In such a way that the 28.6% presence that renewables have in the mix in terms of power translates into a 20.6% leading role when it comes to generating the electricity that reaches homes and companies in the Archipelago.

One of the great leaps taken by the Islands in these four years has had photovoltaic self-consumption as its protagonist. Gran Canaria currently has 40.97 installed megawatts (3.29 in 2019); Tenerife, 34.75 (1.50 megawatts four years ago); Lanzarote, 11.63 (1.78); Fuerteventura, 10.62 (1.38); La Palma, 3.93 (0.70); La Gomera, 1.32 (0.04); and El Hierro has installed its first 0.78 megawatts in these four years.

The total number of facilities with these characteristics that are operational in the autonomous community as a whole amounts to 11,218, a figure that multiplies by more than 31 the 360 ​​existing facilities in July 2019. The takeoff of self-consumption due to the commitment that administrations also have done for him – subsidies – is of great dimension. It is enough to know that during the time that has passed this year, the rate of execution is 20 new installations every day.