Tag: green energy

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

The Canary Guide Día de Canarias #WeekendTips 26-28 May 2023

 
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.

Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market

Six weeks since the unexplained disappearance of Anna-Karin on Gran Canaria

The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.

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The Canary Islands, closer to their objective of reaching 45% penetration of renewables by 2025

A new call for aid to implement 180 MW of wind power is set to expand provision much closer to the goal set by the Government of the Canary Islands to reach 45% penetration in renewables by 2025, which is included in the draft of the Energy Strategy of the Canary Islands .
The Minister of Economy, Industry, Trade and Knowledge of the Canary Islands Government, Pedro Ortega, during a presentation, together with the Secretary of State for Energy, talked about the new call for aid to implement wind power in the Canary Islands , aimed at entrepreneurs, promoters and agents in the sector with the aim of making known and clearing any doubt regarding the various stages and technical conditions needed for this process.
Ortega explained that the new 180MW provision equals the annual consumption of 158,823 Canarian households, which “is an important advance for the sustainable energy model on which we have been working since the beginning of this legislature and which is one of the priority objectives of the Government of the Canary Islands”.
Since 2015, installed wind power in the Canary Islands has increased by 154% to total a total of 417.6 megawatts, with the installation of 32 new wind farms. At present, the installed wind power on the islands is equivalent to the annual consumption of 368,470 homes; that is to say: 46% of the total that there are in the Archipelago.
The Canary Islands have gone from being at the tail end of the Spanish regions in the implementation of renewables, as a result of a blockade of ten years, to be one of the Spanish regions in which the most wind farms have been built in recent years .
This new call is the result of dialogue, cooperation and continuous work developed over the last few years from the Government of the Canary Islands, together with the Government of Spain and with the agents and companies of the sector.
 

Almost €300,000 for electric vehicle recharging points in 17 Gran Canaria municipalities

The Cabildo of Gran Canaria has awarded almost €300,000 for the first phase of their new electric vehicle recharging network that will place charge points in strategic locations in 17 municipalities at a maximum distance of 42 kilometers from each other.
The company Etecnic has won the tender with a term of three months to carry out the necessary works that went for €445,000, to support the current needs of electric mobility and the increase in demand expected over the coming years. Modification to the energy policy model is aimed at, ideally, half of the island’s vehicles, some 200,000, using this system by 2034.
Once the installation work is completed, Puerto de Las Nieves de Agaete will have an ultra-fast recharge space for two vehicles, which will allow half of the battery to be charged in just 10 minutes, while fast-loading points will take 15 minutes in the rest of the municipalities.
Agüimes will have a point in Playa de Arinaga, while the Arucas point will be located on Calle Alcalde Suárez Franchy and the Firgas one at the roundabout a few meters from the Church of San Roque.
Gáldar’s will be on the Bajada de Las Guayarminas highway, in Guia on Calle Lomo Guillén, Ingenio on Avenida Carlos V in Carrizal, the La Aldea one on the beach and the Moya in Pico Lomito.
The network is to be completed with charging points by the Parador de Tejeda, Avenida Tomás Roca Bosch in Puerto Rico, Mogán, calle Tenderete in Santa Brígida, the Santa Lucía town center next to the church, La Mareta in Telde, one on Calle Pérez Villanueva in Teror, a charge station will be next to the ecological market in Valleseco and there will be one on Avenida Juan Carlos I in Valsequillo.
Each municipality will have an information pole visible so that users know that they can recharge there and locate it easily. After the works, the Cabildo through the Insular Council of Energy will put out a tender for the management of these stations.
Gran Canaria’s first recharging network is set to contribute to a change to the energy model of the island combat reluctance to use these types of vehicles, as the autonomy of travel throughout the island territory will now be guaranteed.
The second phase of the project aims to reach the other municipalities, namely Artenara, San Mateo and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, in addition to expanding the existing offer in the capital of Gran Canaria.
After this the next objective will be to install points at Gran Canaria Airport. Once all the phases have been completed, each municipality will have at least one recharging station capable of charging two vehicles simultaneously.

Welcome to the Future: Gran Canaria announce grants for solar panels

The Cabildo de Gran Canaria will agree subsidies for the first time for the installation of photovoltaic panels on homes and industrial buildings, according to the Minister of Energy, Raúl García Brink, during a conference he recently gave as part of the III Jornadas sobre Cooperación y Desarrollo de la Real Sociedad Económica Amigos del País de Gran Canaria. 
With amounts ranging up to €200,000 the project is part of the measures adopted by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria to promote the penetration of renewable energy for self-consumption, added the counsellor, who noted that the call will be published most likely in May and that the Cabildo will inform the population of the regulations and requirements to benefit from this “push” for individuals to install solar panels.
The objective “is to promote self-consumption (auto-consumo) at a particular level and photovoltaics is a great opportunity because here we have enormous possibilities and the development we have is still small,” said the counsellor.
The counsellor, at the conference ‘The Cabildo de Gran Canaria facing the challenges of the XXI’, recalled that the island institution approved the Strategic Plan of Grants for the realisation of studies of energy efficiency in November and encourage the use of alternative energy for individuals and companies along with other actions aimed at minimising the impact of climate change and achieving maximum energy sovereignty through renewable energies.
The great transformations, he said, arise with the sum of other smaller ones, from the institutions, but also from each home. In addition, the Cabildo launched in 2016 the Climate Action Group made up of independent scientists, the two Canarian universities, the ITC (Canarian Institute of Technology) and several environmental organisations with the aim that civil society can work and contributein the definition and development of climate change actions.
The Insular Council of Energy, created in the current mandate, has a budget of more than two million euros this year, and coordinates the pact of Mayors that brings together 15 municipalities on the island that are involved in the development of plans of action for climate and sustainable energy with the help of a dozen engineers trained to do so. It is also in the process of preparing a diagnosis of risks, vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change in Gran Canaria. The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

The Cabildo has also signed an agreement with Involcan to analyse the evolution of Gran Canaria’s geothermal potential through field work and to determine the electric power generation system that would be most optimal for the island. More than 3,500 points have already been analysed and before the end of the year there will be conclusions after an investment of half a million euros.
García Brink detailed other actions such as the electric vehicle recharging network in 17 municipalities of the island, in addition to the celebration of the second Movelec Fair in Infecar on 27 and 28 April on this type of car.
The Cabildo also promotes wind farms on land they own, such as the environmental complex of Juan Grande, which will be put out to tender this year for two more megawatts, in addition to another planned in Agüimes. On the other hand, the Infecar car parks will host a photovoltaic plant for self-consumption of 94.5 kWp, in addition to the 36 kilowatts auto-consumo plant that has already gone out to tender for the central park of the insular institution.

The Society for Economic Development is also a participant in the actions to face the new century with the Smart Island programs, including an early detection system for fire points, as well as incident and emergency management, a project monitoring and control water network and water leaks and the third already tendered for intelligent screens for public transport.

Welcome to the future…

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