The PLZ21 group has presented a proposal that aims to promote renewable energies in Lanzarote and for the island to advance towards decarbonization and, at the same time, "avoid the dispersion of energy installations and that the landscape is irreparably altered".
Currently, despite the fact that Lanzarote has very suitable conditions for the implementation of renewable energies, they barely represent 11.2%, compared to 20% in the Canary Islands and 46% reached in the State as a whole.
On the Island there are about 31.5 megawatts of wind power, which will be more than 40 when the new public park is operational, while the photovoltaic power is around 18 megawatts. The peak demand on the Island is 130 megawatts, with losses due to transport and distribution of 24 megawatts, so the necessary generation power is at least 154 megawatts, according to the group in a press release.
“The starting premise for the implementation of energy equipment must be the least possible visual contamination, in very limited areas, to avoid the dispersion of this type of infrastructure, also taking into account the topography of the land, so that the installation is as little visible as possible”, PLZ21 points out in a study in which it considers a series of guidelines that the implementation of renewable energies should have.
As will be recalled, the Canary Islands Energy Transition Plan (PTECan), prepared in the last legislature, established for Lanzarote a potential area available for onshore wind of 89.3 square kilometers, in addition to a zoning for photovoltaic of 196 square kilometers, “with dispersion throughout the Island, which would lead us to a model with a high visual impact and affectation to the territory, in addition to opening the door to a phenomenon of speculation on rustic land”, they explain from the group.
“For all this”, PLZ21 highlights, “what would be appropriate is that Lanzarote articulate a process to define which soils are suitable, limiting them as much as possible and fixing them exclusively, instead of opening the hand with a highly expansive zoning such as that of the PTECan, which would cause a high territorial and landscape impact irreversible”.
Less than 1% of the land
In order to materialize Lanzarote's energy transition and face challenges such as the electrification of transport with renewable sources, PLZ21 proposes a series of areas for the installation of up to 150 megawatts of wind energy and 300 megawatts of photovoltaic, "concentrating these equipment in a few locations".
Thus, for the implementation of new wind turbines, it advocates for two zones in the vicinity of Zonzamas and Montaña Mina, in an environment in which public wind farms have already been installed. According to PLZ21, the zoning of surface area needed for land reserve to reach the wind target would be 4.5 square kilometers, "a surface much smaller than the more than 89 square kilometers planned by the PTECan in Lanzarote".
As for photovoltaics, six zones are suggested, chosen “for their topography with less visual impact and for their proximity to electrical networks”. In addition to using the surroundings of Zonzamas and Montaña Mina, another zone is proposed in the vicinity of the San Bartolomé karting track or in the vicinity of the Tías karting track and a space located north of the Punta Grande thermal power plant. In total, three square kilometers compared to the 196 kilometers of the PTECan.
In summary, PLZ21 proposes "an area for the implementation of wind energy of about four square kilometers and for the implementation of photovoltaic a surface of three square kilometers", less than 0.9% of the island's surface. The group shows it in contrast to the PTECan, "whose final approval would allow the use of 34% of Lanzarote for energy equipment".
Public initiative
PLZ21 considers that it is time to “establish the bases and criteria that must mark the development of renewable energies in Lanzarote”, to avoid the impact that is occurring, for example, on the neighboring island of Fuerteventura, with "an alarming dispersion of this type of installations throughout the territory by private initiative".
In the opinion of the group, it is necessary to “avoid a planning that does not respond to island interests or to the accumulated heritage over decades on respect for the landscape, which have made Lanzarote a tourist destination with its own and differentiated personality in the global context”.
In addition, PLZ21 considers that the public institutions of the Island should continue to lead the implementation of renewable energies, since it is “the most appropriate way to guarantee that, ultimately, the citizens of Lanzarote benefit from the use of the sun and wind”, and that the resources generated revert to the electrical and drinking water supply itself.