Canary Islands authorize wind and photovoltaic hybridization in Santa Lucía

The Government of the Canary Islands has agreed to the execution of the electrical installation called “Hybridization of the Santa Lucía del Mar Wind Farm Phase I with the Santa Lucía del Mar Photovoltaic Plant”, with 1.8 MW, in the municipality of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, on the island of Gran Canaria. The decision is recorded in Decree 144/2026, of September 4, published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands number 182, of September 10, 2026, and further orders the modification of the affected territorial and urban planning.

The project, promoted by the entity Energías Alternativas de las Islas, S.L.U., with file ER225920, was declared of general interest through Order No. 82/2026, of March 5, by the Councilor for Ecological Transition and Energy, under article 6 bis of Law 11/1997, of December 2, regulating the Canarian Electricity Sector.

A photovoltaic plant added to an operational wind farm

The new installation is located in Bahía de Formas, on a plot of 287,450 m², and will be hybridized with the Santa Lucía del Mar Wind Farm, of 7.2 MW, which already has definitive commissioning authorization granted by the Resolution of the General Directorate of Energy No. 53/2022, of January 17, 2022, with file ER150067.

• Solar field with an installed capacity of 2,031.84 kWp, consisting of 4,896 modules of 415 Wp each.
• 36 inverters of 50 kW from the manufacturer SMA Ibérica, model SUNNY TRIPOWER CORE 1.
• Nominal system capacity of 1,800 kW, with the generator oversized by 10% to minimize losses.
• Evacuation at 20 kV via two 1,000 kVA step-up transformers, sharing the wind farm’s substation and evacuation line up to the SE Escobar.

An exceptional procedure in the face of urban planning non-compliance

The Autonomous Environmental Evaluation Commission (CAEA) certified on February 21, 2025, that the project is exempt from an environmental impact statement, as it does not exceed the thresholds of Law 21/2013. However, both the City Council of Santa Lucía de Tirajana and the Insular Council of Gran Canaria reported the project’s non-compliance with the municipal General Planning Plan and the PIOGC2022, as it is located on non-ordered sectorized developable land.

Given this lack of concrete planning, the Government of the Canary Islands, at the proposal of the Councilor for Ecological Transition and Energy, Mariano Hernández Zapata, and following deliberation in its meeting on September 4, 2026, agreed to the execution and ordered the adaptation of the planning on the occasion of its first substantial modification. The decree, signed by President Fernando Clavijo Batlle, legitimizes the execution of the works by itself without the need for another planning instrument.

Energy, environmental, and economic impact

The plant will provide 3,098.26 MWh/year of renewable energy to Gran Canaria’s electrical subsystem, which is equivalent to 777.7 tons of oil equivalent per year that will no longer be consumed. The energy generated will result in an annual reduction of 2,556.06 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere, and the approximate investment amounts to 2,109,658.07 euros.

The measure is part of the 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration and the 2023 Energy Emergency Declaration, which set the goal of decarbonizing the Canarian economy by 2040 and achieving maximum penetration of renewables in the island systems.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, no. 182, September 10, 2026, III. Other Resolutions, page 34372 (official reference: Decree 144/2026, file ER225920).