Red Eléctrica: renewables supply far more Canary Islands power

Within a week, the share of renewable energy in the Canary Islands‘ electricity consumption has more than doubled to 13.1 per cent, according to data from the grid operator Red Eléctrica. On average over the seven days up to Wednesday, this was the proportion of the islands‘ electricity generated from renewable sources; in the previous week, the figure had stood at 5.2 per cent.

This represents an increase of 7.9 percentage points. On Wednesday, the share of green electricity reached its daily high of 23.4 per cent, meaning that almost a quarter of the electricity came from renewable sources. This followed a decline in the share of green electricity in the Canary Islands the previous week.

The Canary Islands government aims to meet at least 58 per cent of its electricity consumption with renewable energy by 2030. Based on the new weekly average, there is still a shortfall of 44.9 percentage points to reach this target, and even Wednesday’s peak figure is less than half the target.

Canary Islands: Wind farms and storage facilities to help meet green electricity target

Achieving this target therefore requires offshore wind farms and additional energy storage facilities. To this end, a solar storage plant is being built in Adeje in the south of Tenerife, which is intended to increase the proportion of green electricity on the island.

Meanwhile, the electricity supply on Gran Canaria is still awaiting an power-generating vessel, the arrival date of which remains unconfirmed. Politically, the grid also remains a hot topic, as the PP has promised to resolve the Canary Islands‘ electricity problems within one parliamentary term. At the same time, the 2027 budget allocates less funding for the environment and energy.

At the same time, electricity demand – which generation must meet – is rising. According to figures from the ISTAC statistics office, 328,047 megawatt-hours of electricity were available on Tenerife in September, which was 5 per cent more than in September of the previous year.