El Hierro, the smallest island of the Canaries, is staging one of the most ambitious island projects regarding energy self-sufficiency through the use
of renewable energies. In a few years, El Hierro will become one of the first islands in the world to meet its energy demand using RES (Renewable Energy Sources). Considered as one of the most audacious actions of the strategy established in the European Commission White Paper on Renewable Energies, the project is already a reference for other islands, such as Crete and Madeira, and has become a strong example of the “Island 2010” initiative promoted by the ALTENER programme. The 100% RES project is also a key issue of the “Sustainable Development Plan” defined in 1997 by the Island Government
of El Hierro, which has proved to be even more relevant since El Hierro was declared a “World Wide Reserve of Biosphere” by UNESCO in January 2000.
It is a most singular project, featuring high replication possibilities, which demonstrates that a 100% RES future is already a reality for islands.

To reach this challenging objective, different programmes focusing on energy saving, 100% RES for electricity production and transport are to be implemented. With the financial support of the DG TREN of the European Commission, a consortium of 7 partners, coordinated by ITC (Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias), are will carry carrying out a project that will focus es on the “100% RES for Electricity Production” programme. The most innovative part of this programme is the development of a Wind-Hydro power station, which is an original concept that combines wind power and hydropower, using water as an economic way of storing energy. Furthermore, and in order to demonstrate that the synergies between different RES can contribute greatly to increasing RE penetration into weak grids in isolated areas, PV, solar thermal and biomass programmes will also be implemented.

During the first phase, an important part of the project is devoted to the construction and monitoring of the Wind-Hydro power station on El Hierro, but also to feasibility and economic studies for the development of similar Wind-Hydro power station, initially on Crete and Madeira and later, on other islands worldwide that are appropriate for the replication of the system. On a less technical level, tasks such as the integration and involvement of the island population (acceptance of the system), socio-economic research and knowledge sharing will be implemented.