The central government 'hostile to Canarian interests'

 

The president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, described as "closed and hostile to the interests of the Canary Islands" the attitude of the central Government of refusing to incorporate new generation groups of 20 or 30 megawatts of energy in the Islands and thereby avoiding a possible energy zero, arguing that this matter must be resolved by the Canary Islands Executive. "This attitude of Madrid cannot be understood, when the advisor of the previous Canarian Government demonstrates with absolute certainty that Europe considers the alternatives proposed by the Canary Islands to be viable, despite the fact that Spain now says that these alternatives are incompatible with European standards," he said. .

 

President Morales described as "incomprehensible" the discrepancies that have arisen between the two governments that, as he noted, were formed until last July by the same political force, and called for the responsibility of the state Executive to take measures. in order to solve the situation that is being experienced in the Archipelago, in which of the 100 existing energy generation groups, more than 60 exceed 25 years, and many of them even exceed 40, when their useful life is 25 , and where, furthermore, in the last decade, no new group has been installed.

 

 

"Above all, there must be dialogue, the search for agreements and consensus, and moving away from maximalist and closed positions, which prevent us from finding an alternative to what is happening," said the island president. "Because the first thing is the safety of the Canarians, the energy security of the Islands and moving away from a possible zero energy," he stressed, which is why he advocated doing everything possible "to guarantee, with an emergency procedure, that we can have four or five groups of 20 or 30 megawatts, so that we can get out of this situation of insecurity.

 

In this context, he announced that he plans to hold a meeting, on October 4, with the current Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mariano Hernández Zapata, in order to analyze the current scenario, in which, Although avenues of dialogue have been opened, these are similar to those that already existed with the previous central government. "The reality is that no answers are being given that guarantee that the regulations are complied with and that, therefore, with the established legal criteria and the modification of the law on emergency procedures for the new tender, energy security can be guaranteed. "he maintained.

 

And, in this regard, he predicted that this contest could last between five and six years. "At that time, Salto de Chira will already be in operation, which will represent a large part of the solution for Gran Canaria, because it will contribute 200 megawatts to the system and will be a large storage pile, so that renewable energies can continue to penetrate," he claimed. "And we must also promote offshore wind energy, because, if we do not do so, we will continue with the data we now have in the Canary Islands, which indicates that we are one of the communities that are at the bottom in the penetration of renewable energies," he stated. .

 

In this sense, he criticized "the voices that are heard" and that urge a return to gas and regasification plants, an idea that he considered "madness" and "a tremendous barbarity. We must now flee from fossil fuels and we continue to depend on good their way," he lamented. "It doesn't matter whether fuel, oil or gas, which some claim is less polluting. It may be so here, but, originally, gas is as polluting or more polluting than oil and fuel, due to the production of methane. for this planet, for global warming," he explained. "Therefore, let's stop this crazy thing. The solution is in renewable energies, in which we must advance as much as possible," he concluded.