The Gáldar City Council has launched the new photovoltaic canopies at the municipal funeral home car park in San Isidro, an initiative that reopens this space with 85 parking spaces and charging points for electric vehicles.
The Gáldar City Council inaugurated the photovoltaic canopies at the municipal funeral home car park in San Isidro on Tuesday, an infrastructure that combines the generation of clean energy with the reopening of a key parking space for residents. The project, driven by the Department of Environment led by Ulises Miranda Guerra, involved an investment of €827,781, 85% of which was funded by Next Generation EU funds through the Government of the Canary Islands.
The new installation is part of the municipal energy self-consumption strategy, which already includes the canopies at the Venancio Monzón Sports City, inaugurated in January 2025, and the photovoltaic plant over the municipal swimming pools. With this expansion, the combined generation capacity exceeds half a megawatt, solidifying Gáldar's position as one of the Canary Islands municipalities most committed to renewables in its public buildings.
The mayor, Teodoro Sosa Monzón, highlighted during the event that “every public investment must contribute to reducing energy consumption, emissions, and the municipal electricity bill.” Sosa reminded that sustainability is a “cross-cutting obligation” in all the council's projects, and announced that the next major milestone will be the Botija wind farm, where work is underway to install a third wind turbine that will inject three megawatts into the grid.
The Deputy Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julieta Schallenberg, emphasized that “the energy transition is built from the municipalities, taking advantage of everyday infrastructures.” Schallenberg appreciated that Next Generation EU funds become “useful and sustainable infrastructures with a direct impact on people's lives.” Meanwhile, the Environment Minister of the Gran Canaria Cabildo, Raúl García Brink, described the installation as “the square of the circle” for combining solar energy, storage, and electric vehicle charging.
The Environment Councillor, Ulises Miranda Guerra, explained that this is the first municipal photovoltaic installation with lithium battery storage, with a capacity of 400 kWh. Miranda announced that work is already underway on another six similar installations in sports courts in different neighbourhoods, which, according to him, demonstrates that “no one can say we are not doing our homework in ecological transition.”
The project director, Mariano Rodríguez Cabrera, detailed that the intervention has covered an area of 2,226 square meters, with 534 photovoltaic modules of 425 Wp each, totaling a peak power of 226.95 kWp and a nominal power of 200 kW. The car park has 85 spaces, six of which are designated for electric vehicles with three charging points. The system, in addition to generating electricity for the funeral home's self-consumption, allows excess energy to be fed into the electrical grid.
The project's funding came from a grant from the Ecological Transition Department of the Government of the Canary Islands, which contributed €605,115 (85% of the total), while the rest was sourced from Gáldar City Council's own funds. This aid is part of the Sustainable Energy Strategy in the Canary Islands, within the programme to promote photovoltaic generation in urbanized areas.
For the residents of Gáldar, the reopening of the car park means a direct improvement in their daily lives, as the San Isidro funeral home is a common transit point. Additionally, the installation of electric charging points facilitates sustainable mobility in the municipality. The City Council expects that the energy savings resulting from these canopies will be reflected in the municipal electricity bill, which has already been reduced with previous infrastructures.
With this initiative, Gáldar reinforces its profile as a pioneering municipality in renewable self-consumption in the Canary Islands, awaiting the completion of the third phase of the Botija wind farm. Mayor Sosa insisted that “sustainability is no longer an option, but an obligation,” and encouraged other municipalities to follow suit.
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