GEOPLAT accompanies Minister Ribera at the announcement of the resolution of the aid for deep geothermal energy.

GEOPLAT was present on Thursday 15 February at an event at the Government Delegation in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in which the Vice-President of the Government Teresa Ribera (head of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge) and Joan Groizard Payeras, Director General of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), announced the resolution of the ‘Deep Geothermal Energy Programme‘ aid line.

The event coincided with the publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the selected projects that will receive aid to carry out geothermal research in Tenerife, La Palma and Gran Canaria.

GEOPLAT was doubly represented on this occasion by Margarita de Gregorio, coordinator of the platform, and Celestino García de la Noceda, head of geothermal projects at the IGME National Centre and member of the GEOPLAT steering group, who spoke about the opportunities and benefits of geothermal energy and the future prospects opened up by these grants, about which they were optimistic:

“It is difficult for these soundings to fail because the islands are quite analysed”, explained Margarita de Gregorio. “In the last 30 years, a lot of prospecting has been carried out”. In this sense, García de la Noceda also expressed his conviction that, if all these drillings are completed, “there is only a possibility that some of them will not have the resource”.

In addition, they analysed the good momentum that the sector is going through and the opportunity presented in Spain. “The administration must be agile if we want this to go ahead,” warned García de la Noceda. “The good thing about having started last in Europe is that we can build on previous experiences that are much more mature,” concluded Margarita de Gregorio.
The event was also attended by the beneficiaries of these grants, such as the Cabildo de Gran Canaria together with CIEGC; the Cabildo de Tenerife together with ITER and the company DISA; and the Cabildo Insular De La Palma with SODEPAL.

Almost 90% of the total 120 million available funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (#PRTR), financed by the European Union, have gone to the Canary Islands.
Minister Ribera considered this to be “an important sign of the solidity of the commitment to geothermal energy in the islands”.