The Executive Committee agreed to present the innovative project of the Canary Islands Technological Institute to the call for the Cooperation Plan of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, with the aim of obtaining financing to carry it out.
The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Southeast Gran Canaria, meeting this Tuesday in its first session after the holiday period, agreed to request the Gran Canaria Council to finance the expansion project of the Pozo Seawater Desalination Station (EDAM). Izquierdo charged to the Institutional Cooperation Plan. The desalination plant, which supplies drinking water to the three municipalities in the region, will go from 33.000 cubic meters of production per day to 38.000, which represents an increase in its capacity of more than 15%.
The highlight of this project, however, will not be the increase in flow but the implementation of a new reverse osmosis system, created 100% from the Canary Islands, which will produce savings of more than 40% in energy consumption. From the average expenditure of 3,2 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter produced, it can be increased to 1,85 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter. For an installation the size of EDAM del Sureste this will mean 6.750 kilowatts less daily consumption, which in economic terms would translate into about 150.000 euros of annual savings.
All of this will be possible thanks to the installation of a new prototype developed by the Canary Islands Technological Institute (ITC) that manages to optimize the energy used in the desalination process. It is not a new invention but rather a more efficient combination of hydraulic components that already existed on the market – pumps, pipes and membranes – achieved after more than 150 simulations carried out in the laboratory.
This new technology is destined to generate impact worldwide, especially in the areas of the planet with the greatest water scarcity. Although until now it had only been able to be developed experimentally, it will be able to be installed on a large scale for the first time thanks to the collaboration between the ITC and the Commonwealth of the Southeast. The project budget amounts to almost 5 million euros, of which the supra-municipal body hopes to obtain at least 80% from the Cooperation Plan of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria with the municipalities and associations of the island.
The Executive Committee, made up of the three mayors of the region and with the current presidency of the mayor of Agüimes, Óscar Hernández, also agreed to propose the reform of the Statutes of the Commonwealth. The appointment of the president of the organization will continue to be carried out for alternate periods of six months, but synchronizing the dates every four years with the holding of local elections. The objective is to avoid possible situations of vacuum in institutional representation in the event that changes occur in the city councils as a result of the municipal elections.
