The great center of offshore wind power in La Luz, in the air after the contest was deserted

The ‘star’ tender of the port of Las Palmas and which was projected on a plot of 120,000 square meters -on land reclaimed from the sea at the beginning of the Reina Sofía dock- has been left deserted for some “uncompetitive” specifications and that prevent “the numbers add up”, according to close sources. As will be recalled, the specifications were drawn up by the public engineering and consultancy company Ineco (dependent on the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda), to which the president of the Port, Luis Ibarra, entrusted it due to the complexity of the contest and the interest aroused in this plot, which will be the axis of the development of offshore wind in the coming years in the Canary Islands.

For a start the specifications restrict the use of the plot to “renewable energies”, preventing another type of load from being moved. To continue, the investment required to prepare the plot exceeds 25 million euros, with which the project is clearly “unfeasible”. “The uses are very limited and the investment is very high with what the numbers do not give”, indicate close sources.

It is true that the specifications include a minimum initial investment of 15 million euros. However, this figure skyrockets if the requirement that 70% of the plot has a bearing capacity of ten tons per square meter (to get an idea in the Reina Sofía it is four tons), since it is necessary to build special concrete slabs that make the project more expensive.

«The figures that have been included in the specifications have nothing to do with reality. The costs skyrocket with the demands they ask for and the numbers are staggering”, indicate these sources. In addition to this investment, we must add the equipment, which according to the specifications, must be at least one million euros. «If the uses were expanded, it is possible that the contest would be attractive. As it is, of course not, “add these sources.

According to what CANARIAS7 has learned, Navantia planned to compete in the tender together with the Canarian shipyards, Astican and Zamakona. However, they have finally scrapped the idea. “If these three big ones cannot do it, no one else can”, indicate sources from the port environment.

After the tender was declared void, the president of the Las Palmas Port Authority, Luis Ibarra, must take action. In this sense, the options go through reviewing and retouching the conditions of the specifications or letting the contest die and taking the plot to the competition process.

As will be remembered, this contest began precisely like this, after in December 2021 the company IRM Canary Base opted for part of this land (78,719 square meters) to create a ship repair center and ‘offshore’ renewable energy elements. In the competition procedure, a second company appeared: Concesiones Eólicas Canarias, which forced Ibarra to go to the contest.

Almost a year after that, and despite the interest and expectation that the project has generated among numerous companies, the plot remains without an owner.