'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by julian_sark on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:15AM (#33606225)

It's like the moon - provided the moon can only be explored with a pre-booked tourist bus, and any exploration on foot, or collecting of samples is strictly prohibited. Which is probably fine for a nature reserve, I just thought it deserves mention.

This isn't by far my biggest gripe with Lanzarote. That would be that after visiting about 10 years ago, I wondered whether they do geothermals, being in the absolute perfect position to do so. And then figuring out that because of not wanting a new power plant built on the island, they import oil by tanker ship, then burn it for electricity.

edit: they burn the oil. Not the ship.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by ricardobayes on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:27AM (#33606295)

No geothermals at all. Spain as a whole is very late on renewables, some early adopters are just picking up air-source heat pumps and solar panels are starting to become wide-spread. It didn't help that there was a prohibitive tax on solar panels dubbed the 'sun tax' here that ended recently.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by L_226 on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @03:46AM (#33606809)

I think I heard about some solar power investment scheme in Spain, a decade or so ago, that got a bunch of retail investors burned. Is that right?

I believe it also killed the solar updraft tower [0] project that was going on in Manzanares [1].

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower#/media/Fil...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by Mordisquitos on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @08:03AM (#33608640)

> No geothermals at all. Spain as a whole is very late on renewables

I'm being extremely nitpicky here, but geothermal energy is not technically "renewable" in the precise sense of the word. That's not to say that geothermal energy cannot be an excellent and environmentally friendly energy source. For contrast, hydroelectric power is renewable, but can easily be very environmentally damaging depending on its location.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by hutzlibu on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @03:05AM (#33606559)

El Hierro on the other hand, a smaller neighbour island, is 100% on renewable energy.

So something is happening, even though the change rate is frustrating.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train by mtmail on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @08:30AM (#33608900)

I find numbers indicating 60% over a full year, but there have been stretches in winter where 100% was covered by renewable energy (wind power). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Hierro#Energy (German wikipedia has newer numbers). A good step in the right direction nevertheless compared to "previously spent on about 40,000 barrels of crude oil imported annually"

[ Parent | on HN ]