The Plan will cover 10% of the CAIB’s annual energy consumption and forms part of the CAIB’s Self-consumption Plan.

The Government, through the Director General of Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava, and the manager of the Balearic Energy Institute (IBE), Ferran Rosa, have recently presented the CAIB’s Self-consumption Plan in the Canary Islands, which aims to produce up to 60 MW of new power through photovoltaic energy, in a way that will accelerate the decarbonisation of the Islands and allow savings on the bills of the Autonomous Community’s public facilities.

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Ecoislas Forum

Malagrava explained at the various meetings held as part of the international forum Greening The Islands how the CAIB’s Self-consumption Plan is planned for the period 2022-2026 and aims to reduce around 52,000 tonnes of CO2/year, the equivalent of eight months of the year without vehicles on Palma’s Via de Cintura. This Plan aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the public administration and, for this reason, the facilities will focus on several areas of action, giving priority to these types of actions in urban environments to accelerate the energy transition. In total, 166 solar panel installations will be carried out: 84.9% in Mallorca, 7.1% in Menorca, 6.6% in Ibiza and 1.4% in Formentera.

Rosa also explained the Solarisation Plan for Irrigation Ponds that the IBE is developing as part of its renewable energy and water cycle projects at the Ecoislas Forum in the ‘Water and Energy: Strategic Allies’ session, along with Pedro Apeles Díaz, coordinator of the Tenerife Cabildo’s Renewable Energies Office, and Carmelo Santana, manager of the Consejo Insular de Aigües (Island Council of Water).

The managing director explained that this plan is one of the formulas that the government has to lower the electricity bill and ensure sources of funding for adaptation to climate change. “We have a total of 17 installations linked to water (with ABAQUA) and which are included in the self-consumption plan. These facilities total 3.69MW and have an investment of 4.6 million euros”, said Rosa, while explaining that this investment is in addition to the 20 million euros that the Government is allocating to develop the Plan in irrigation ponds and the 25 million euros that the Directorate General for Energy and Climate Change has made available to administrations and companies for energy efficiency actions and/or renewable electricity generation facilities by local authorities and water supply and treatment companies.

“In total, we have 50M € between subsidies and direct investment to reduce the electricity bill in water infrastructure, which is essential to be able to invest in improving them and adapting them to climate change,” Rosa stressed.

The CAIB’s Self-consumption Plan

The Self-consumption Plan of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands is one of the pillars on which the IBE carries out its work. This Plan was presented on 3 March 2022 and envisages a reduction of at least 13 million euros in the Administration’s electricity bill each year. Thus, the current 2.4% of renewables in the public administration will go from 2.4% to 34.4% with these installations.

One of the highlights of this Plan is the project already carried out in the car park of the Mateu Orfila Hospital in Menorca, which became the first hospital in the Balearic Islands with a car park completely covered by photovoltaic panels, which, added to the 400 kW installed on the roof of the hospital, will cover 26% of its consumption and save a total of 280,000 euros a year on the electricity bill. Also noteworthy are the projects to be carried out in 166 floating installations. The projects to be located on sheets of water, such as irrigation ponds, are expected to generate approximately 28 MW of power. In addition, 20% of the installations in the Plan will be located in government car parks and will generate up to 12.2 MW, while 19% of the installations will be located on roofs and rooftops of public buildings (and will generate 11 MW). Finally, in order to minimise land consumption, only 14% of the installations will be on land, generating 8.6 MW.

The IBE is in the process of putting out to tender the execution of works on five projects of the CAIB’s Self-consumption Plan, which will save more than 340,000 euros on the Administration’s bill, as well as three more projects located in institutes, which will save more than 75,000 euros on the Administration’s bill.