The news has come as a shock, albeit an expected one, to business leaders in southern Gran Canaria. The Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) has opened its wallet: €212 million for Spanish ports to prepare for offshore wind. Of that sum, the Canary Islands (the SAMC region) will receive €30 million. At first glance, it seems like a victory for the island. But if we delve deeper into the Ministry's press release, the reality for southern Gran Canaria, where most of the turbines will be installed, and the southern coastline is quite different: those €30 million will be nowhere to be seen in Castillo del Romeral.
It's paradoxical. Gran Canaria is set to become the epicenter of offshore wind energy in Spain, and the residents of San Bartolomé de Tirajana will see the turbines' lights on the horizon. However, the €30 million in NextGenEU funds earmarked for adapting the docks will pass right by on the GC-1 highway without a trace. The south will continue to rely on tourism and consumer logistics, but the opportunity to diversify towards a "green heavy industry" remains, by law and by structure, confined to the docks of the capital. Once again, the south provides the natural resources, and the north foots the bill.
The PORT-EOLMAR program is unequivocal. Aid will only be granted to projects in state-owned ports, those designated as being of "General Interest." In Gran Canaria, this translates to specific locations: the Port of La Luz and the Port of Las Palmas. While the south watches as offshore wind farms are planned right off its coast—from Castillo del Romeral to Juan Grande—the investment to create the auxiliary industry, assemble the giant wind turbines, and handle heavy logistics remains in the north. The south provides the scenery and, possibly, the visual impact, but the financial and infrastructural "engine room" stays in the capital.
The call for proposals demands conditions that the marinas or refuge ports in the south (such as Pasito Blanco or Arguineguín) neither have nor can have:
Deep draft and berths are required for large vessels transporting floating platforms, and kilometers-long open areas are needed for assembling high-value components. Since they are not state-owned ports, the southern ports are automatically excluded from the "competitive bidding process."
The condition set by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is that every euro of public funding must be matched by private investment in an industrial project lasting at least a decade. This means that the companies that will manufacture and maintain the wind turbines will be located where the funding is: in the port area of La Luz. Southern Gran Canaria, where the wind blows with the necessary force to make these wind farms profitable, remains once again the "production site," while "profit management" and industrial infrastructure are concentrated in the metropolitan area.
