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THE SMALLEST AND least known of Spain’s Canary Islands, El Hierro, is making a splash by becoming the first island in the world fully energy self-sufficient through combined water and wind power.
A wind farm opening at the end of June will turn into electricity the gusts that rake the steep cliffs and green mountains of the volcanic island off the Atlantic coast of Africa.
Its five turbines installed at the northeastern tip of El Hierro near the capital Valverde will have a total output of 11.5 megawatts – more than enough power to meet the demand of the island’s roughly 10,000 residents and its energy-hungry water desalination plants.
Although other islands around the world are powered by solar or wind energy, experts say El Hierro is the first to secure a constant supply of electricity by combining wind and water power and with no connection to any outside electricity network.
Surplus power from the wind turbines will be used to pump fresh water from a reservoir near the harbour to a larger one at volcanic crater located about 700 metres above sea level.
When there is little or no wind, the water will be channelled down to the lower reservoir through turbines to generate electricity in turn.
“This system guarantees us a supply of electricity,” said the director of the Gorona del Viento wind power plant, Juan Manuel Quintero who is supervising final tests before the plant starts functioning in a few weeks.
The plant will account for 50 per cent of the island’s electricity demand when it is officially inaugurated at the end of June, a figure that will rise to 100 per cent over the following months.
The scheme will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 18,700 tonnes per year and eliminate the island’s annual consumption of 40,000 barrels of oil.
El Hierro will maintain its fuel oil power station as a back up, just in case.
Pioneer project
The island is cited as a pioneering project by IRENA, the international organisation for renewable energy, and other experts such as Alain Gioda, a climate historian at France IRD science research institute. He said:
The true novelty of El Hierro is that technicians have managed, without being connected to any national network, to guarantee a stable production of electricity, that comes 100 percent from renewable energy, overcoming the intermittent nature of the wind.
El Hierro’s wind power plant has sparked interest from other islands seeking to follow its example.
Officials from Aruba, Hawaii, Samso in Denmark, Oki in Japan, and Indonesia have all shown interest.
“It is a project which is considered at the world level as a pioneer and it is one of the most important in the production of renewable energy,” said the president of island’s local council, Alpidio Armas.
“El Hierro can be a sort of laboratory,” he added, providing an example to other islands around the world which are home to around 600 million people.
El Hierro, the westernmost of Spain’s Canary Islands, has also been invited to present its project at several international conferences, including in Malta and South Korea.
Electric vehicles
El Hierro wants to extend its environmental credentials even further by ensuring that by 2020 all of its 6,000 vehicles are run on electricity thanks to an agreement with the Renault-Nissan alliance.
The wind power plant cost €80 million to build.
The island authorities own 60 percent of the plant, with 30 per cent held by Spanish energy company Endesa – a subsidiary of Italian group Enel – and 10 per cent by a local technology institute.
“We wanted to be the owners of the majority of the plant. That means that the profits as well as the possible losses, that is the destiny of Gorona del Viento, is the responsibility of the residents of the island,” said Armas.
Revenues from the plant will boost the island’s budget by about €1m to €3m per year, he said.
“These are revenues that can go to the local residents, to subsidise water prices, infrastructure, social policies,” he said.
El Hierro, designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve with 60 per cent of its territory of 278 square kilometres protected to preserve its natural diversity, also hopes its green energy drive will draw visitors interested in nature and science.
“We cannot turn down the benefits that tourism brings, but we don’t want mass tourism,” said Armas.
- © AFP 2014.
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Seems one sided .
@DMur: shouldn’t it be all extremism?
Wonder will the do the same for the black hebrew Israelites. They are super racist homophobic and basically anti everything else!
@DMur: Yup it is. It should be identity politics for everyone or identity politics for no one.
@DMur: Sounds like something a white supremacist would say.
@Keith O’Reilly: No it actually doesn’t.
@andyearley: what about what about what about? What about? What about? Zzzzzzzzz
@DMur: This is open to ferocious abuse from the left. The definition of a white supremacist has been diluted so much recently that simply having a conservative opinion on immigration for example is enough to render you a Nazi in the public eye. Accusations such as these have already been seen to destroy the lives and careers of people who don’t conform to the narrative. Facebook is on a precipice right now and if they continue to find ways to clamp down on free speech (which is what all this is really about) then it’s going to collapse like tower seven never to be seen again.
Let it be said I detest the idea of white supremacy but for the screechers here I feel I have to point it out.
What constitutes “hate speech”? Who decides? Is every person still allowed to express their opinion on something, even if other people may find it distasteful?
@Sirius:
hate speech
noun
abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Amazing news, Trump supporters trying to put rational people into ovens again.
@Orla Smith: another dilusional liberal. Funny how hateful y’all are and then you want to point the fingers at everyone else. The only racists are democrats
I made one negative comment about turnips and now I’m banned from Facebook.
Yet another move by the turnip industry to silence us
@Brian Guilfoyle: This is worse than when Big Parsnip removed my Bebo
@Brian Guilfoyle: that was quite a turnip for the books.
@Brian Guilfoyle: Banned for swede f*-all
@Sean O’ Donovan: Can’t they just lettuce say what we want?
@Brian Guilfoyle: They carrot allow that.
Always best to prohibit and censor the expression of opinions and ideas that you’re unable to counter with reason and debate. Don’t think there’s any precedents in history where driving movements underground has resulted in those movements strengthening as a result either. A win win so, the hard of thinking don’t need to exercise their brains to deal with opinions with which they disagree, and if Facebook says the movements are gone then they’re definitely gone and will never return in the future.
@Orla Smith: the only racist here is trash like you. That symbol on your profile might as well be a swastika.
@Winston Smith: Shares in Homestore just rocketed…
@Orla Smith: Problem is people like yourself cant counter ‘rascit b.s.’ – real or imagined. All you seem to be able to do is call people names instead of providing a rational counter argument. Look back at your comment history, seriously!
GO’D won’t be happy…
About time.
One attack on Muslim’s everything get banned, years of use by ISIS to recruit followers all over the world and nothing happens.
About time.
What took so long?
(((Civil rights groups and academics)))
It’s crazy to see people on one side getting silenced, while the left can spout all the hate they like. Surly this isn’t right
have your say