In a few weeks, the Council of Ministers of the Government of Spain will approve the Marine Space Planning (POEM), which will include the maritime zones of Lanzarote that the Ministry for Ecological Transition considers viable to install windmills at sea that generate renewable energy.
So far there is only a draft of said plan, which includes a wide strip off the eastern coast of Lanzarote, considered by the Ministry for Ecological Transition as an area of high potential for its installation.
The competencies to authorize electricity generation facilities at sea are state-owned, but the Cabildo of Lanzarote took advantage of the public consultation carried out by the Ministry for Ecological Transition on the POEM of the Canary Islands, to make allegations.
It will soon be known if the central government assumes in the final version all the allegations of the Cabildo which, in essence, considers that “the only place on the island where marine wind power would fit would be on the anthropized coast (more industrialized area) of Puerto de los Mármoles”, as explained by the Councilor for Energy, Ariagona González to Ekonomus.
The Cabildo considers that these facilities should not be placed on the rest of the Lanzarote coast , since they are coasts dedicated to other uses, whether tourism, navigation, fishing, or with protected natural spaces, which are part of the marine environment.
First auction in the coming months
Once the POEMs are approved, the central Executive intends to define the regulatory framework as soon as possible in order to launch the first auction of this technology in the country during the first semester of this year.
The Cabildo considers that the recent proposal by Capital Energy to the Ministry to install a marine wind farm with four wind turbines and 50 megawatts off Las Caletas "is not within the anthropized zone" and has informed the company of this.
Some environmentalists have warned of the visual impact on Costa Teguise that could be generated by the Capital Energy proposal, and other similar ones proposed by other companies previously, which would be located off Las Caletas and would be visible from Playa Bastián.
Capital Energy stated that “in the event that the definitive version (of the POEM) suffered any type of modification that slightly affected” the areas defined for the installation of marine wind power on the island, “the location, type and final number of wind turbines” would “adapt accordingly.”
