San Bartolomé de Tirajana - Canary Islands, Spain
Canary Islands is an outermost region situated in the West-South of Spain in which tourism sector plays an important role in the local economy. The municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana is situated in the South part of Gran Canaria Island with a population of 53,588 and is the main tourist zone. Energy consumption is 853,765 MWh/year, causing the release of 496,133 t CO2. Tourist activities account for 51.4% of the total energy consumption and 42.4% CO2 emissions. Domestic hot water production, swimming-pools heating and space cooling in touristic structures accounts for 65-70% of total energy consumptions. LPG, diesel and electricity are used to provide such services. There is no experience in district heating, so thermal energy demand is mainly supplied by small-medium size boilers and chillers. Solar thermal systems and heat pumps are used to a less extent. RES electricity generation represents the 15.9% of the total electricity consumption while solar thermal energy accounts for 0.47% of final energy consumption.
Ambition, vision and expected objectives
- To quantify thermal energy demand in densely populated tourist urban areas and identify zones with high level of energy demand density and great interest of hotel owners and other stakeholders to be connected to a RES district H&C system.
- To promote district heating in tourist urban areas as a tool to overcome technical barriers to reach the energy efficiency requirements specified by regulations.
- To analyse the technical and economic feasibility for the development of district H&C systems in selected areas based on the hybridisation of solar thermal and geothermal energy and co-creation of a viable model for citizens’ and local stakeholders’ participation in the implementation of the developed system.