Holistic photovoltaic solutions
Where Energy Grows
Amid lava fields, prickly pears, and the endless blue of the Atlantic, a new kind of landscape is spreading across Tenerife — quiet, rhythmic, and precisely aligned with the sun. Rows of solar panels, casting barely a shadow at midday, merge into the terrain as if they had always belonged there. Here, energy no longer originates in industrial halls but in the open — decentralized, silent, and visible.
Solar parks and ground-mounted systems
have become the great stage of the energy transition on the Canary Islands. While rooftops and carports supply power for self-consumption, large-scale installations take on the role of collective providers. They transform fallow land, abandoned quarries, and disused fields into productive spaces — places where energy grows instead of grain.
Energy from Open Space
Tenerife’s topography offers ideal conditions: high solar radiation, stable temperatures, and wide areas in the island’s south and east allow for large solar fields with impressive annual yields.In the municipality of Granadilla de Abona, a single solar park already generates enough power to supply over 5,000 households. The panels follow the sun’s path, slowly tilting westward — as if bowing to the source of their power.These sites are more than energy producers; they are symbols of a new way to use land. Where once barren soil eroded, technological ecosystems now emerge with their own internal logic. Cable conduits replace irrigation pipes, and low vegetation between rows is deliberately maintained to promote biodiversity rather than suppress it.
Agriculture and Solar Power in Harmony
A particularly promising concept is agrivoltaics — the combination of farming and solar generation. Here, solar panels are mounted higher off the ground, allowing continued agricultural use beneath them.On Tenerife, farming cooperatives are already experimenting with this dual-use model. Beneath the solar roofs, tomatoes, zucchinis, and papayas grow — protected from intense sunlight yet still well illuminated.This symbiosis could define the island’s future: producing both food and energy on the same land, adapted to a changing climate. Instead of land competition, there is now land cooperation — a quiet revolution that is both economically smart and ecologically essential.
Solar Fields with Vision
The economic relevance of these projects continues to grow. According to the Spanish Energy Agency (IDAE), over 50% of electricity produced in the Canary Islands already comes from renewable sources — and the trend is rising.Ground-mounted solar plays a major role in reducing the islands’ dependence on imported fuels. The long-term vision: Tenerife as an almost energy-autonomous region by 2040. Challenges remain — complex permitting processes, grid connections, and environmental regulations require careful evaluation of every site. Yet momentum is building: more municipalities are designating solar zones, encouraging local participation models, and integrating storage technologies to smooth out power fluctuations.
From Solar Field to Solar Lake
In parallel, a new generation of installations is emerging — floating photovoltaic systems on reservoirs and lakes. These projects use existing water surfaces to generate electricity without occupying land.They also reduce evaporation and increase module efficiency through natural cooling — an advantage especially valuable in the dry southern regions of the island.This interplay between land and water, sun and technology, nature and planning makes Tenerife a model for other islands worldwide. It proves that renewable energy doesn’t compete with the landscape — it becomes part of its evolution.
Energy as Landscape Architecture
Ultimately, a solar park is more than an array of panels — it is a new form of landscape architecture, a kind of technological land art with a functional soul.In the morning sun, the panels glimmer like fields of glass. At noon, they seem to drink the light. By evening, they mirror the sky in flat reflections.Where once wind and salt shaped the land, now the sun itself sculpts its rhythm. Tenerife is becoming the stage of a quiet transformation: energy is no longer produced far away — it emerges in the heart of the island, visible, tangible, and sustainable.Sources:
Fraunhofer ISE (Floating PV Guide 2023), Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), IDAE España, European Energy Agency (EEA), PV Magazine Spain, SolarPower Europe, Energía Sostenible Canarias, Intersolar Europe
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