The Ministry of Ecological Transition has authorized a maximum of 30 piercings in different locations of La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria to facilitate the search for high enthalpy geothermal energy (which is capable of being integrated into the electrical mix) more than 1 kilometer deep. The aim is to verify in which places of the Islands the heat emanating from the dormant volcanoes can be exploited to integrate it into the electrical systems and thus contribute to changing the Islands’ energy model.
The Archipelago has received 106 million euros – out of the 120 million allocated by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) for these projects – to explore its potential for deep geothermal energy. This funding will allow the autonomous community to resume the search for this energy resource, which has been stalled for 30 years.
This is the most significant investment that Canarias has received in this area and the State’s greatest commitment to truly explore the possibilities of exploiting this renewable energy in the Archipelago. The subsurface heat energy, in addition to being clean, is a manageable source. Unlike wind power, which depends on the presence of wind, or solar power, which depends on sunlight, the resource is always present.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was announced by the Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, last Thursday, after meeting with the President of Canarias, Fernando Clavijo. Subsequently, the member of the Government of Pedro Sánchez participated in a conference discussing the possibilities that the exploitation of this clean energy opens up.
Experts expect that few of the drills will end without the sought-after success
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In total, the Archipelago has managed to secure ten of the eleven projects that the ministry deemed eligible for subsidies in the call managed by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE).
Of the projects, six are set in La Palma (worth 45 million euros), three in Tenerife (worth 43 million), and the remaining one in Gran Canaria (worth 15 million). Each initiative will be able to make a maximum of three piercings in search of geothermal potential.
Consortia (mostly public-private) lead all of them, in which academic entities also participate. The awardees will have to add an amount of at least the same size to the funds from the Next Generation EU distributed by the IDAE.
The consortium formed by ITER, Involcan and the limited company Geothermal Energy of Canarias is the one that has the greatest presence in the IDAE’s final resolution. Three of its projects, all for the location of deep heat sources in Tenerife, appear on the list and amount to 43,198,104 euros. Geothermal Energy also appears alone in La Palma with another initiative subsidized with 14,479,750 euros.
So far, only two drillings have been carried out in the Islands, and that was more than 30 years ago
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The response from La Palma consists of a block of public and private entities, including the Society for the Promotion and Socioeconomic Development of La Isla de La Palma, the Insular Water Council of La Palma, the Economic Interest Group called Community for the Distribution for the North and West Slopes of La Palma and the cooperative Energía Bonita. Two of the projects it presented, focused on the Mazo and Punta Sur geothermal fields, caught the attention of evaluators; they amount to 25,568,156 euros.
Gran Canaria entered the call with the Insular Energy Council (Cabildo) leading the trio of private companies formed by Canaluz, Ayagaures Medio Ambiente (Pérez Moreno Group) and Canary Islands Base. The Southeast region is the area set for the work on the Island, which has received 15,000,000 euros from the PRTR.
In the private sector, the presence of the multinational Repsol stands out, with a proposal subsidized with 5,357,500 euros and focused on La Palma. The investment vehicle called Society for the Development of Canarias 2000 receives attention for two of its ideas, called Electrolapalma and Benahoare, which together amount to 2,639,700 euros. In this case, the contributed capital is well above the required 50%.
Public-Private Consortiums leading subsidized projects
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“This call helps to reduce the investor’s uncertainty in these initial surveys,” reveals Celestino García de la Noceda, a researcher at the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME), who considers it “very positive” that the central government has decided to support the Canary Islands in this call.
“There had always been talk of the potential of the Canary Islands for this energy, but it had never been explored in this way,” explains Joan Groizard, director of IDAE. Since the Canary Islands became aware of the potential in its subsoil to have clean, cheap, and easily controlled energy, various studies and searches for this natural resource have been carried out.
All prospecting projects must be completed by January 31, 2026
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However, only two research surveys have been conducted in search of this renewable energy Holy Grail. Tenerife conducted one in the Santiago del Teide area between 1990 and 1993. A failure that reached a depth of 1,060 meters, but in which researchers did not find what they were looking for. In part, because they drilled in a place where the surrounding rock infiltrated too much rainwater. In Lanzarote, a single survey was conducted in 1977, which reached a depth of 2,700 meters, but also did not find what it was searching for, as there is no hot magma beneath the island, only incandescent rock.
Therefore, Canary Islands has gone over 30 years without drilling the ground in search of its heat. And it has not been due to lack of interest, but rather to lack of funding. Not in vain, the cost of a single drilling is very high. According to data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, at least 10 million euros are required for a single survey in Tenerife or La Palma and 8 million if it is in Gran Canaria.
“It is a very large investment, and without public support, it is very difficult to carry out,” admits Groizard, who states that this call allows “progress” through a joint effort. In total, it is endowed with 120 million euros, half of them exclusively reserved for the Canary Islands. However, the projects submitted in the archipelago, which could also aspire to the other segment, the state segment, have managed to corner the majority of the resources.
Even without surveys, the autonomous community has not remained oblivious to the heat emanating from its depths. “It is difficult for these surveys to fail, because the islands have been quite well analyzed,” explains Margarita de Gregorio, coordinator of the Spanish Geothermal Technology and Innovation Platform (Geoplat). She herself insists that in these 30 years, “many surveys have been conducted.” Similarly, García de la Noceda is convinced that only “some” of the drillings will end without finding the sought-after resource.
“This is the first time we have a call of this magnitude; we had never had so many resources for geothermal energy,” admits Groizard. In fact, the director of IDAE ensures that this initiative “has aroused a lot of interest from all kinds of agents” and affirms that they will follow it closely. “We are confident that good surveys will be carried out, and we will obtain interesting results,” affirms Groizard.
However, even the most optimistic are aware of the major obstacle that the Canary Islands face in starting to drill the subsoil. The European funds must be executed before January 31, 2026, which means that both the consortia and the regional government will have to rush to seize this unique opportunity. Finding drilling machinery – which has not been used in Spain for years – and environmental permits are now the two biggest headaches for the promoters. “The Administration must be agile if we want this to move forward,” warns García de la Noceda. However, most of those involved expect that Europe will authorize an extension of between five and six months.
Geothermal energy is not the only solution to the challenge of the energy transition in the Canary Islands, but it may be one of the most important. Not in vain, geothermal energy is one of the few renewable energies that, due to the stability of the resource, allows the operator to make very rapid maneuvers to cover demand peaks. And, as Margarita de Gregorio insists, “the good thing about having started as the last in Europe is that we can rely on much more mature previous experiences.”
During the day, Minister Ribera also met with the President of the Gran Canaria Island Council, Antonio Morales. “At the end of the summer, it is likely that the administrative procedure will have begun, allowing the public auction to start this same year, making Gran Canaria the first territory in the State where offshore marine wind power will be launched,” Morales stated.
In addition, the island’s president informed the minister that a saltwater hydro-pumping project has been put on the table of the Ministry and IDAE, which can be “a benchmark for other islands, as the Chira Leap already is.” This is an initiative with an investment of 171 million euros and a capacity of 70 megawatts, which advances an innovative proposal for energy storage.
