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The greenest island in the world?

By Laura Plitt
BBC Mundo

5 October 2015

THINKSTOCK

The smallest and most isolated of the Canary Islands, El Hierro, has a way of
combining hydro and wind power that may allow it, one day, to get all its energy from
renewable sources. In August it went for two hours without using its diesel power
station at all - but this could be the start of a bigger green transformation.

For more than 30 years, El Hierro has been dreaming of becoming self-sufficient. And this
year it took a big step forward. At the end of June its new hydro-wind facility, Gorona del
Viento, came fully on stream and in July and August it provided roughly half of the island's
energy needs.

That means the island's 10,000 inhabitants are suddenly less reliant on supplies of diesel
arriving over unpredictable seas from Tenerife, 200km away.

In July, Gorona del Viento saved 300 tonnes of fossil fuels, but that is predicted to rise to 500
tonnes per month before long - the equivalent of saving 40,000 barrels of oil and 19,000
tonnes of emitted CO2 per year.
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The system consists of five wind turbines with a total capacity of 11.5MW and two water
reservoirs - one at 700m above sea level, the other down near the coast. The reservoirs are
connected by two 3km-long pipes, and any water running from the upper to the lower
reservoir passes through a series of water turbines, generating electricity.

Fresh water is used, rather than sea water, to ensure that the aquifers are not contaminated if
there are any leaks.

What's unique about it is the way the wind part and the hydro part work together.

"When we get enough wind from the wind farm, we produce electricity and distribute it through
the grid. Whatever is left, we use it to pump water from the lower reservoir to the higher one,
and then, when the wind drops, we let that water fall through a set of hydraulic turbines and
we generate electricity again for the population," says Juan Gil, chief engineer at Gorona del
Viento.

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The key disadvantage of wind power - the unreliability of the supply - is made up for by the
water in the upper reservoir which can be released "within milliseconds" according to one of
the engineers involved, whenever the wind starts to blow less strongly. The system is
continually switching between releasing water from the upper reservoir and pumping water
back up, depending on the strength of the wind and the demand for electricity.

But the goal is to go further than the 50-50 mix of renewables and diesel generation achieved
over the summer.

The station should already be able to cover 70% or 80% of total consumption, according to
some of those involved.

Juan Pedro Sanchez, an industrial engineer who works as an adviser to Gorona del Viento,
foresees steadily increasing the length of time the plant is used to cover 100% of the island's
needs. This was done for two hours on 9 August, the next step will be to try it for 24 hours and
ultimately it should be possible for weeks on end, he thinks.

"I think that in a year or so, the plant could supply all the electricity the island needs for about
200, 250 days," Sanchez says.

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EPA

He points out that there is a learning curve for those operating the plant, and that the energy
company, Red Electrica, also needs to be convinced that diesel output can be safely reduced.

The dream, one day, is for Gorona del Viento to provide 100% of the island's electricity all
year round. This can be achieved, according to Thomas Padron, ex-president of the local
council and one of the founders of the project, but only with more investment.

"It's possible. But for this we have to enlarge the capacity of the water reservoirs, to have
more hydro energy when the wind falls," he says.

The length of time Gorona del Viento can continue generating hydro power is determined by
the volume of the smallest reservoir - in this case, the lower one, which is less than half the
size of the upper one. As soon as the lower reservoir is full, hydro generation has to stop
because fresh water, which is in short supply on El Hierro, cannot just be released into the
sea.

Green credentials

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ALAMY

El Hierro is not the only island to aim for renewable energy self-sufficiency.

Since 2008, residents on the Scottish island of Eigg have made a concerted drive to cut
down on the use of fossil fuels, reduce waste and invest in sustainable resources. Nearly
100 people live on Eigg and their electricity is now supplied by hydro, wind and solar
energy

Denmark's island of Samso, with a population of 4,000, produces all its electricity from
renewable sources and aims to be fossil fuel free by 2030. The islanders own shares in
the turbines, and have set up an Energy Academy to disseminate their expertise

If the wind were, hypothetically, to stop blowing and the lower reservoir just happened to be
empty at the time, the island could survive with uninterrupted hydro power for about two days,
at average levels of consumption, according to Juan Pedro Sanchez. But if the lower reservoir
was enlarged to match the size of the upper reservoir, that would stretch to five or six days - a
big difference.

Because the cost of generating electricity at Gorona del Viento is low, there is a tendency to
regard all the diesel that might have been used, but wasn't, as a pure saving.

The current council president, Belen Allende, calculates that over 20 years, by not burning
6,000 tonnes of diesel per year, El Hierro will save the central government about 80m euros.
By Spanish law, the cost of electricity has to be the same all over the country, so bills haven't
gone down. But the island will benefit, Allende says, as the Spanish state is expected to give
the island compensation of 5-7m euros per year.

There are some, however, who argue that the cost of building Gorona del Viento - 82m euros
already - means that in reality the electricity is not cheap at all, but actually very
expensive.

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Even on the island there are those who think that the money could have been spent on other
things, such as developing El Hierro's almost non-existent tourism business.

Many of the islanders, though, remember a time when the island's dependence on the outside
world for energy caused recurrent problems.

"This island was abandoned, neglected and forgotten by the central authorities," says Padron.

"Until the beginning of the 1970s, El Hierro only had electricity from dusk to midnight, and only
in the capital and two other towns."

If conditions at sea were bad, the island could be cut off from the rest of the world for days or
weeks, putting even that limited energy supply at risk.

Another problem, historically, was lack of water. "El Hierro suffered many droughts and people
were forced to emigrate to the bigger neighbouring islands, and to Cuba, Argentina and
Venezuela," says Padron.

There are no rivers or lakes on El Hierro, so the only way to get water was from underground
aquifers reached by deep shafts. Nowadays, there are also three desalination plants - running
these, and pumping fresh water to villages at higher altitudes, consumes half of the island's
electricity.

But this means, says Padron, that the more El Hierro controls its own electricity supply, the
more it controls its water supply.

There are plenty of other green initiatives on the cards.

One is a plan to offer incentives to persuade residents to swap their 6,000 conventional petrol
and diesel cars for electric ones over the next 10 years.

Another is to build a composting plant that would turn half the island's rubbish into agricultural
fertiliser.

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There are also proposals to improve the efficiency of the water distribution system, and to
experiment with wave power - Allende wants the island to be a place where green technology
is put to the test.

Large numbers of foreign scientists and policy makers have already been visiting El Hierro to
learn about Gorona del Viento.

THINKSTOCK

But it's actually a great island for anyone who likes nature, and solitude.

You can be down on the coast one minute, in an unusual volcanic landscape, and half an
hour later in a forest of wild juniper trees bent into peculiar shapes by the constant battle with
high winds.

Wait until darkness comes, and if there are no clouds, there is a stunning night sky entirely
free of light pollution.

It's also a safe place - the kind where some people still leave the keys in the ignition of their
car.

If you are thinking of visiting though, remember that it's windy 80% of the time - so if you have
long hair, you may need a big bottle of hair spray.

The green island

The BBC's Laura Plitt discovers how the islanders have turned natural challenges into
opportunities.

This is part of the Island Stories series.

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