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1546
Mary Gives Wind to Sailors
sailors drifting for days in calm water off the coast of El Hierro went ashore and gave the islanders an image of the Virgin Mary that they had been carrying for delivery to the New World. At that moment, the winds picked up and the sailors were finally able to sail away to the New World. -
Gorona del Viento formed
The Gorona del Viento El Hierro consortium was formed. It included Canary Islands Institute of Technology, consultants from the Spanish utility company Endesa, and representatives of the Spanish government. All participants were focused on shifting the island’s energy source from diesel-powered generators (that used 6,600 tons of diesel fuel and emitted 8,700 tons of CO2 annually) to a wind and water turbine farm that would use no fossil fuels and emit no CO2. -
Declared a Biosphere Preserve
El Hierro's energy and environmentalist ambitions aren't new; UNESCO declared it a Biosphere Preserve due to the island's proactive conservation efforts -
Oil Precautions
the Spanish Minister of Industry gave the multinational oil company Repsol permission to drill three exploratory deep-water perforations in the ocean seabed near the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands is one of the largest marine areas. An oil spill would cause an environment disaster of unimaginable proportions. Such a disaster would affect not only the Islands’ marine biodiversity, but also its source for drinking water and its tourism and commercial fishing industries. -
El Hiero Today
a closed-loop wind and water system with five windmills and two water reservoirs. Harnessing the Atlantic Ocean’s near-constant winds, the windmills combined capacity of 11.5 megawatts is designed to provide islanders with daily electricity while also powering three water desalination plants. When surplus power is generated, it pumps water 700 meters above sea level into an upper reservoir that is an extinct, sealed-off volcano crater.
