On World Energy Efficiency Day, IbizaPreservation’s Sustainability Observatory warns of setbacks
Ibiza, 05-03-22 – The low production of renewable energies in Ibiza continues to represent, for yet another year, a major difficulty on the road to energy self-sufficiency and the penetration of renewable energies in the island’s energy model. This is one of the conclusions put forward by IbizaPreservation’s Sustainability Observatory, which is currently in the process of drawing up its 2021 Ibiza Sustainability Report.
Even taking into account that energy production and demand data for 2021 generated by IBESTAT are preliminary, the indications are not positive because Ibiza has reduced its renewable (photovoltaic) energy production by 33% compared to 2020, which means that, of the island’s total energy production capacity, renewable energy accounts for only 0.38%. This figure is significantly lower than in 2020, when photovoltaic energy accounted for 1.01% of total electricity production.
Ibiza is also the Balearic island with the lowest percentage of clean energy production, as in Mallorca, 3.6% of the energy generated is renewable, in Menorca 2.74% and in Formentera, the most advanced island, 18.35%.
The year 2021 has meant, in turn, an increase in electricity demand on the island, as socio-economic activity resumed after a difficult 2020 as a result of the pandemic and the restrictions on mobility and other activities to control it.
Ibiza has increased its electricity consumption by 14.6% compared to 2020, with August being the month with the highest demand, 12.7%. Of the total energy demand in 2021 (867,052.6 MWh), only 0.11% could be supplied by renewable energies generated on the island (925.5 MWh), a figure that is also decreasing since in 2020 it accounted for 0.18% of the total demand.
Ibiza is therefore far from reaching the 35% penetration of renewable energies by 2030, as established by the Balearic Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition and from meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 to considerably increase the proportion of renewable energy in the total energy sources of the territory.
The IbizaPreservation Sustainability Observatory recognises the steps being taken by the Balearic Government together with the island’s local institutions in the implementation of photovoltaic and self-consumption installations, but, in the words of the technical coordinator of the Sustainability Observatory, Itziar Arratibel, “the gap between what needs to be done and what is being done is still desperately wide and, at the current rate of implementation, it will be difficult to achieve the objectives within the established deadlines.”
IbizaPreservation’s director Inma Saranova recalls the latest warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which insists that human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruptions to nature and is already affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. “The IPCC report is a dire warning about the consequences of widespread inaction by individual countries and their governments over time,” says Saranova, which is why she calls on the relevant administrations to take action. “There is no justification whatsoever for the fact that in this context, Ibiza registers setbacks instead of progress in terms of renewables, it is simply no longer acceptable.”
For all these reasons, the IbizaPreservation Sustainability Observatory considers it an urgent task for all public, private and social agents in Ibiza to commit to increasing the role of renewable energies in the energy mix, favouring self-consumption, focusing on taking urgent measures (technological, infrastructural, changing habits, etc.) capable of reducing consumption and building an efficient, sustainable and non-polluting energy model.
