Oliver Quevedo Rodríguez is a native of Yuco, in the municipality of Tinajo, and graduated in Molecular Biology from La Laguna, where he also obtained two master's degrees in biotechnology and biomedical research, a doctorate, and later moved to Denmark to be a researcher and then an expert in a biotechnology company.
Throughout his career, Quevedo has had to analyze a large number of data for his research. Something that he has been enjoying more and more to the point of pivoting his career towards the data analysis sector in all kinds of matters, what in English is known as Data Analytics to facilitate decision-making at a political or business level.
In an interview with Ekonomus, he addresses one of the issues he has investigated: the electricity system of his island and its possible transformation towards a clean and sustainable system.
According to a study he has published on Lanzarote Futuro, the ideas platform, driven by Gerd Leonhard to achieve a better future for the island, the installation of solar panels on 40% of the roofs of the island could generate more energy than the island currently needs. There would be a capacity of a potential installed of 1 GW, when the island consumes about 800MW per year.
Quevedo explains that the data comes from a theoretical calculation using data from OpenStreetMap “a free community, very well maintained and made by the users themselves who often use many public institutions”.
It is “a fairly real approximation”, although for a definitive solution “it would be necessary to use data from the cadastre” the expert points out.
But also, using the solar radiation data, provided by the European Union through the online tool pvhis, Quevedo has calculated that it could reach up to 1.5 GW per year.
Batteries and hydrogen plant(s)
Part of the excess energy from the solar panels “would be stored in high-capacity batteries, similar to what happens in California. These batteries would be distributed throughout the island and could cover approximately 40% of the night demand”, explains Quevedo.
The rest of the excess would be used to produce hydrogen, which would serve to cover the rest of the night demand, and as a long-term reserve (with a reserve that could cover approximately a month and a half of demand). If necessary, Quevedo even envisions "potential for Lanzarote to export part of that hydrogen".
The data analytics expert bases his study on the experiences carried out in places like Orkney (Scotland), Lolland (Denmark) or Esbjerg (Denmark).
This system would also allow, explains Quevedo, to minimize the risk of electrical blackouts like the one on April 28, which several towns in northern Spain were spared, thanks to the fact that they had lithium batteries for times of heavy snowfall.
Close Punta Grande and preserve the landscape
If this proposal were carried out, it could, on the one hand, close Punta Grande and, on the other hand, avoid the landscape impacts in Lanzarote of an extensive use of land for renewables.
“Punta Grande, which generates more than 60% of the total CO2 emissions of Lanzarote, has many problems. On the one hand, it is becoming obsolete”. In 2031, twelve of its thirteen generators will have exhausted their useful life.
And even more important, Quevedo considers, is the fact that the thermal power plant is too close to the sea. “There are projections that indicate that, under the current conditions, in 25 years part of the area where the plant is located will be flooded”.
In addition, “the Canary Islands Energy Transition Plan includes a decarbonization strategy that implies an extensive use of land, speaks of solar and wind farms, which could alter the landscape of Lanzarote”, which has become precisely the first island to implement those renewable acceleration zones so time is running out.
In the Canary Islands energy transition plan it is stipulated that in 2040 Lanzarote should have a capacity of 244 MW. Currently there are 40.
The estimated capacity for Lanzarote in said Plan is “six times the current capacity, which would imply having six times more windmills along the geography of the island than we have now” with its corresponding impact on the landscape.
Quevedo advocates replacing the Punta Grande thermal power plant with one or two hydrogen plants.
One hundred million investment per year
The expert from Tinajo explains that the project would require a significant financial investment (estimated at 3,000 million euros at current and projected prices).
During a period of 25 to 30 years, the annual investment would be between 100 and 120 million euros.
The data expert believes that it could be financed through European funds such as Horizon Europe, Innovation Fund, LIFE Program, Just Transition Mechanism, Clean Energy Initiative for the EU, complemented with local, regional and national public budget allocations.
In addition, he recalls that Lanzarote Futuro has proposed a tourist tax that could generate between 80 and 100 million euros annually.
Quevedo's proposal seems to arrive at a more than appropriate time. Just a few days ago, the island director of European Affairs, Agenda 2030 and Economic Promotion, Luis Alvarado, proposed a “Solar Marshall Plan for Lanzarote, co-financed initially by the benefits of the CACT, but with the objective of generating an autonomous system based on renewable energy production”.
