Underwater connection cable between La Gomera and Tenerife is approved

The Department of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change, and Territorial Planning of the Canary Islands Government, approved the project for the underwater electrical connection cable between Tenerife and La Gomera yesterday (Tuesday), after studying the environmental impact report.

The regional councillor of the department, José Antonio Valbuena, said that “work can now start early next year and will take two years to complete. When finished we will have a key interconnection for the transition of electricity between our Islands, which will allow a greater distribution of renewable energies, and will provide stability and robustness to the electrical grids of both islands," he said.

The Deputy Minister for the Fight against Climate Change, Miguel Ángel Pérez, celebrated the progress made in a project that "will facilitate the reduction of electricity generation costs, and will contribute to us being less dependent on fossil fuels and foreign fuels”.

Thanks to the underwater cable connecting Tenerife and La Gomera, the conditions are established so that La Gomera can be, from the point of view of the network, the first island in the Canary Islands to produce more renewable energy than it consumes in the year, thus avoiding having to resort to other generating systems with fossil fuels, more expensive and polluting.

The 36 kilometre long cable, which will connect a substation in San Sebastian (La Gomera) to another in Guia De Isora (Tenerife) and will be installed underwater up to depths of 1,145 metres along the sea bed between the two islands, is part of the Canary Islands government’s commitment to be 100% green by 2040, ten years before the date set by the European Union (EU), in 2050.