Spanish Island El Hierro Becomes Energy Self-Sufficient

The smallest and most southerly of Spain's Canary Islands, El Hierro, has became an energy self-sufficient island.
"The United Nations and the European Union have singled out El Hierro as an example to encourage such initiatives in other islands," Policy director of the Spanish Wind Energy Association Heikki Willstedt Mesa told Xinhua in an interview.
El Hierro is part of the archipelago of the Canary Islands, located close to the coast of Morocco. Thanks to a hybrid hydro-wind electricity power station, Gorona del Viento, the inhabitants of the island have electricity derived from wind and water and avoid the use of fossil fuels.
"When it is windy, there is electricity supply to the entire island and when wind production exceeds demand, excess energy pumps water from a reservoir at the bottom of a volcanic cone to another reservoir at the top of the volcano. When there is no wind, the water can be released to generate electricity through four hydraulic turbines," Willstedt explained.
This new system improves the environment of the island. It is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 18,000 tons per year and save over 1.8 million euros (2.26 million U.S. dollars) per year as around 40,000 barrels of oil would not be shipped to the island.
Willstedt also stressed that drinking water for human consumption, irrigation or other uses was also produced by Gorona del Viento, which is important for an island. "Renewable energy is a tool for development and gives you the possibility to carry out sustainable development," he said.
According to Willstedt, "there are many initiatives worldwide but they are not as innovative as the one carried out in El Hierro which combines water and wind to be self-sufficient."
This system "could be implemented in islands with wind and slope, so that wind can be used to pump water," Willstedt explained, adding that, "if there was not a slope, wind could be combined with other renewable energies, such as photovoltaic energy, and batteries that could store electricity."
El Hierro aims to be the first island in the world in renewable energy supplies and it plans to replace the island's cars with electric vehicles by 2020 along with other projects involving sustainability and green energy.
The power station of Gorona del Viento resulted from a public-private partnership between the Island Council, the Spanish energy company Endesa and the Canary Islands Technological Institute. (Cihan/Xinhua)