José Antonio Valbuena, regional minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, advanced that “the Canary Islands will exceed the gigawatt barrier of installed power from renewable sources in 2023, a decisive milestone for the Islands that will place us at 30% of this type of alternative energy compared to the current 20%, once the already authorized projects of the EOLCAN and SOLCAN programs are completed.”
The minister took stock of the processing of wind and photovoltaic farms during the current legislature in the first session of the Plenary of the Canary Islands Energy Observatory (OECan), detailing that in this legislature a total of 511.01 MW (megawatts) of renewable installation in the Archipelago have been requested to the General Directorate of Energy, of which 372.17 MW have already been approved (72.83% of the total). “Considering that the Canary Islands had 600 MW at the beginning of the legislature, if we add the authorized power and the power that will be installed this year, the current renewable power data will increase by more than 50%.”
In this line, the regional minister asserted that “with these figures, this will be the legislature in which the most megawatts have been processed in the Islands, more than doubling the requests analyzed in the previous term.”
Growth of self-consumption photovoltaics
The Canary Islands has quadrupled its installed photovoltaic power for self-consumption so far compared to 2019, reaching 25 MW in this type of energy alternatives. With the arrival of the Next Funds, there will also be great progress in this area and our forecast is that this power will be quadrupled before 2026,” said the regional manager.
Wind farms not authorized in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura
José Antonio Valbuena also wanted to clarify that, of the total power requested, there are 24.28 MW that cannot be materialized due to an unfavorable pronouncement from the councils of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura for the installation of various parks, which represents 4.75% of the total MW requested. To this figure are added the 49.43 MW related to the promoters who have renounced projects and initiatives that have not obtained the favorable Environmental Impact Statement (9.67% of the total).
The total power pending processing corresponds to 15.65 MW awaiting a pronouncement from the Cabildo of Tenerife (3.06% of the total); 13.80 MW pending clarification from the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (2.70% of the total); 8 MW that are in the analysis phase by the General Directorate of Territorial Planning (1.57% of the total); 17.68 MW presented this year and pending an Environmental Impact Statement (3.46% of the total) and 10 MW that require clarification from the General Directorate of Coasts of the State (1.96% of the total).
