How June on El Hierro in Canary Islands to become the first Territory to go 100 percent Renewable

June on El Hierro,  a 278 square kilometres (107 square miles) island that effectively the smallest of the Canary Islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa, is set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

This as they'll become the first country to be fully powered by Renewable energy alone as noted in “Smallest Canary island is first territory to be fully powered by renewable energy”, published Friday, March 21, 2014, The Jamaica Observer .

Their Gorona de Viento Plant consists of 2 Wind Turbines with the following power output:

1.      11.5 megawatts Wind Turbine 

2.      11.5 megawatts Sea Turbine

3.      23 Megawatts of power produced

4.      8 Megawatts used by the island

5.      11,000 inhabitants

The cost of the project is US$110 million (EU 80 million) with the ownership split as follows:

1.      30% of the Plant owned by Spanish Energy company Endesa, a subsidiary of Italian group Enel

2.      10% by a local technology institute

This is basically a complex of five (5) wind turbine that supplies electricity to the entire island and also pumps water up to a reservoir. When the wind stops blowing, the water is allowed to run down from the reservoir to a second reservoir through Hydroelectric Turbines, generating electricity.

Due to their reduced used of Diesel for their previous power Plant, the following expected Savings will be achieved:

1.      18,700 tonnes reduction in carbon dioxide emissions

2.      6,000 tonnes reduction in diesel consumption by

One wonders why this couldn't have been achieved by one of the Caribbean islands that has a small area, such St. Kitts and Nevis or Grenada, instead of looking to unsafe and Earthquake-causing Geothermal Energy as argued in my Geezam article entitled “Geothermal Energy in Jamaica – Steam Power from Magma Underground can cause Earthquakes and Contaminated Water”.