Canary Islands Institute of Technology

The Canary Islands Institute of Technology (ITC) is linked to the Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the Canary Islands Regional Government 

The main objective of ITC’s Renewable Energy Department is to support the Government of the Canary Islands in the definition of the regional energy policy, especially regarding the promotion of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and energy efficiency. 

Locally, ITC manages public programmes with national and regional funding, for promoting RES and energy efficiency, and supports the seven island authorities and 88 municipalities in their local efforts for promoting renewable energies, energy savings and reduction of CO₂ emissions. 

Activities 

The Canary Islands Institute of Technology carries out R&D activities in renewable energies; work which is very focused on the islands. 

ITC’s main expertise is centred on technical solutions to overcome the challenge of maximising variable and intermittent Renewable Energy Sources (RES) penetration in small and weak insular electrical grids (useful expertise that has also application in the “energy islands” found in remote rural areas of less developed countries). 

Of particular interest to ITC is:  

• Advancing islands’ 100% energy self-sufficiency models (with exclusive use of RES);  

• Studying the grids’ (stability) towards increasing RES injection;  

• Developing high RES penetration microgrid concepts for urban or rural areas and even for entire islands;  

• Developing specific energy-climate models to reliably forecast wind or solar power production;  

• Implementing Demand Side Management and Demand Response, as a means of peak-shaving of the electrical demand curve of islands. 

Some of the main fields of research that the ITC pursues are: 

• Electricity production from renewable energy sources; 

• Fresh Water production (water desalination) using renewable energy systems; 

• Development of small to medium-sized wind energy systems (incl. wind-diesel); 

• Testing of solar thermal collectors and systems, PV system components, and small power wind turbines; 

• Study of energy storage solutions based on the use of technology; 

• Production of hydrogen by renewable energy systems; 

• Development of reliable forecasting models to estimate the output of wind and solar systems (numerical analysis based on the Climatic model WRF); 

• Energy savings and efficiency; 

• Waste to energy; 

• Sustainable mobility; 

• Energy planning to promote low-carbon, circular economies in islands. 

Projects 

ITC has been strongly cooperating with all European island regions, promoting RES and energy efficiency projects for more than 20 years. An example of this cooperation is the ISLE-PACT project, where, together with many EU islands, it managed to obtain EU approval for the Pact of Islands European Initiative. ITC also has a strong active collaboration and leading role in promoting RES and energy efficiency together with all the European Outermost Regions. 

ITC also supports efforts to transfer clean energy technologies to neighbouring countries of the Western African Coast. ITC has more than 15 years’ experience designing and installing RES-hybrid systems in rural areas of these countries.