Pilot scheme for the use of low power wind turbines for electricity generation in the municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Abstract

Environment and Power Quality (EA4EPQ). All rights reserved. An existing renewable energy source within our territory which has not been massively introduced is the low power wind energy. This kind of installations has only been used for electricity generation in off-grid systems. This paper describes a pilot scheme in which five 5kW wind turbines will be installed in the Municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The first stage has consisted on the determination of the wind potential within the Municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which has been determined taking as a reference the data from the study performed by the AEMET (Spanish Meteorological Agency) and the data comprised in the Canary Islands Wind Resource Cartography. Once this has been done, a study of physical variables related to the wind flux over the Canaries has been performed by taking data generated by a computer simulation of weather conditions in the course of a year. After the calculation of the eolic data and after the selection and location of the five turbines has been determined, a description of the turbines to be installed is given along with an overview on the territorial legal framework applicable to this type of installations.