El Hierro, a Spanish Island in the Atlantic and the smallest of the Canary Islands will become the world’s first renewable energy island with wind power and solar thermal sources providing 100% of the energy for all 11,000 residents.  El Hierro is already an eco-tourist island paradise featuring some of the best deep sea diving, volcanoes and lava fields, lush valleys, steep cliffs up to 1000m high, trees that are a thousand years old, and dense forests containing species of vegetation which have endured in the island since prehistoric times.

El Hierro image courtesy of http://waihekebr.info/

ABB power and automation technologies are spearheading the project to make El Hierro the world’s first renewable energy island:
 
“Like many remote islands, El Hierro generates electricity with diesel oil transported from mainland terminals by oil tanker. The carbon impact is significant – in El Hierro’s case it amounts to 18,200 tons of CO2 per year in power generation emissions alone, an impact that the renewable energy project will eliminate.”

“The project consists of an 11.5 megawatt (MW) wind farm and an 11.3 MW hydroelectric pumped storage plant that will provide the island’s 11,000 inhabitants with 80 percent of their energy needs. The remaining 20 percent will be generated by solar thermal collectors and grid-connected photovoltaic systems.”

Tomás Padrón, the leader of the island council and head of Gorona del Viento El Hierro said “The project started 25 years ago. During all that time we have struggled to convince the local authorities, the Spanish government and the European commission.”  “Now, we are cited as an example,” says a proud Padrón. “We are the little seed which sprouted in the renewable energy desert.”  Padrón also explained the timing for implementation  ”after a trial period at the end of 2011 the system should come online in 2012.”

As a result of this initiative, El Hierro will be able to close the oil-fired power station that currently supplies its electricity and save 6,000 tonnes of fossil fuel annually as well as reduce CO2 emissions by 18,000 tonnes.

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