Aleesha Hansel
A SPANISH island just powered itself with renewable energy for 18 days straight.
El Hierro, which started its green energy project in 2014, aims to produce in excess of 60% of the island’s needs this year.
The smallest of the Canary Islands, it has five wind turbines, two water deposits, four hydraulic turbines and one pumping station in order to make the energy.
The €82 million project focuses on harnessing the strong winds and docility of still water.
Measuring just 268 square kilometers, with a population of under 11,000, it hopes to become the first island in the world to be self-sufficient for electrical energy.
In the power plant’s first fully functioning year, 2016, it produced 40.7% of the total demand, reducing consumption of diesel by 6,000 tonnes.
This increased to 46.5% in 2017 with the remainder supplied by a diesel plant.
