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Showing posts with label La Gomera news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Gomera news. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

Trump wants the Canary Islands too - Latest News

Will the little Canary be taken under the wings of the great American eagle (Image:hablemosdeaves.com )

After Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland the American president Donald Trump has now laid claim to the Canary Islands.

In one of his rambling speeches Trump has strayed again, from talking about his intent to buy Greenland to a claim much further south, namely the Canary Islands and he has revealed the following: 

''...that little group of islands, I think they call them the Canaries, a great place, much warmer than Greenland, a nice climate they tell me, no ice, and with clever people, a lot more people than Greenland, they're very important to us, too. We want those little islands and they're very important to us strategically there on that side of the Ocean. We've been looking into that, and we want to help them make a great place out of their islands again. Spain and the Europeans have ruined the place, that's not good, and they're important for our security.
Same as America, they've been taken advantage of by the Europeans for too long - a long, long time. Actually, since Columbus came. He was a great, clever sailor, but without the Canaries he couldn't do it, I mean come here and take America. So they, the Spanish, and all the European immigrants, colonised the peaceful Canaries first. They did bad things to them and we want to help them to get well again and be great again. 
They're strategically very important to us, sitting there on the eastern side of the great Gulf of America. You know, they're not even in Europe, they're in Africa, what's the term, geo-something, I don't know, but they're better off with us and so, so close to the Gulf of America. They already trade more with us than with Spain. Maybe you don't know that but it's true, so they're important to us and the other way round. When our tariffs kick in they'd do much better business with us. They'd be much, much better off...''
The American president continued:
''...and it's a great staging post, clever little Columbus knew that, too, and with lots of beautiful golf resorts. We've already got a great airbase nearby, in the eh, eh, Amores, or Azores, or something. That will help us. I mean it's massive, it really is big - you've got to see it, they showed me pictures of it that only the president gets to see - it's great, real powerful. We should, no we must have another one in the Canaries, that's important for international peace.
The Canarians really got a bad deal from Spain and Europe, who don't give them nothing but cheap tourists. I mean, imagine that, and they're poor there and no real jobs for the young people, only cleaning and serving jobs and making bananas, imagine that, that's tough, making bananas. But we'll help them build great new business and I can smell oil and other great things there. I don't know if you can, but, eh, I can. Maybe I'm a genius, but I can smell great things there, gas maybe, too. They've got cute little birds there, too (laughs), I mean the Canaries. I think that's why they call the place that and some people have them at home here, too, in cages. They even have wild Canaries in the golf resorts there, that's real smart. I'd like that in mine. J.D. is going there very soon to talk to their people and he'll find out, he'll find out. We're working real hard on this, it's become more important now, Elon says, and he's a genius. We must have, eh, help them, the little islands right there, just off the great Gulf of America.
We'll pay a fair price for that rundown place, of course, make a good deal, but maybe we have to use a little bit of force at first, too. But they've got smart people over there and like the Puerto Ricans and, yeah, the Hawaiians, too, they will see that they'll be better off with us, America. We'll give them a little time to think about it, but I'm sure in a year we'll have it all done. For sure, April 1st 2026 they'll be with us and celebrating, making the Canaries great again. Liberation day for the little Canaries this day next year, believe me, April 1st is the day ...''

    Image credit and more about the lookalike bird: washingtonpost.com           

Monday, March 14, 2022

La Gomera to generate 70% of its energy from wind

Ship arriving with parts for wind turbines in San Sebastian de La Gomera's port
Parts for the new wind turbines arriving in the port of San Sebastian de La Gomera last month (Image: gomeranoticias.com)

Finally the planned construction of wind tubines in La Gomera is going ahead and the arrival last month of the first large parts for the wind turbines heralds the end for the ageing and very smelly diesel generator driven power station in the island's capital San Sebastian de La Gomera.
The new large windmills will be constructed in three wind parks in the mountains above the capital, one of them near 'El Camello'. This desolate spot once had indeed camel stables, then it housed a discotheque and nightclub, and after that had closed down refugees from Africa were housed there in container homes.
The three wind parks, once completed, will generate up to seven megawatts of electricity and should cover 70% of the island's 10MW average demand.
The plan to generate all of La Gomera's electricity from renewable sources was drawn up in 2019 and the arrival of the first segments of the windmills was hailed as a historic moment by the authorities.
The aim is to become 100% self sufficient in electricity generation and the next step in the island government's plan is the construction of solar photovoltaic parks to augment wind energy and to provide stability of the grid. Some of the diesel generators will probably remain on stand-by.
The new windmills will hopefully be a lot more reliable and sturdy than the only two previous turbines near Epina that never worked very well. One of them even got blown down in a storm a few years ago (more here...).

Sunday, April 07, 2019

Green light for green energy

Wind and sun power this electric car charging-point in Hermigua
La Gomera's island government has provisionally approved the allocation of initially 500.000 Euros in subsidies for the installation of photo-voltaic panels by private house owners and businesses. Grants of up to 60% of the cost of the installation of solar energy systems will be paid out with a maximum of 12.000 Euros for small to medium enterprises and up to 24.000 Euros for private household installations. This announcement by the island's president Casimiro Curbelo was made last Friday and is a further step towards La Gomera's ambitious plan towards becoming independent of external energy sources. This well-intentioned plan has sadly suffered delays in the past due to the energy-supplying companies dragging their feet while their ageing diesel-powered electricity generating station keeps belching out thick smoke in the island's capital, so above news is most welcome.

Further, thinkspain.com reported some time ago:
''The Canarian island of La Gomera is aiming to be powered 100% by 'green' energy sources within 12 years, slashing its power costs by 37%.
La Gomera, just off the coast of Tenerife, will be the second island in the region to try to go completely 'renewable' after El Hierro attempted it between 2014 and 2016.
The latter survived for months on wind energy alone and, in 2016, covered 39% of its electricity needs using wind farms – then, in January and February this year, had all 10,700 of its inhabitants supplied entirely by renewable sources for 18 consecutive days.
But La Gomera's plans are far more ambitious – the westernmost island in the Canaries (Ed: no, that's La Palma) currently depends upon fossil fuel for 99% of its power needs and, aside from a handful of solar panels owned by private individuals, has just two wind generators of 0.4 megawatts (MW) of power.
Despite La Gomera being famous Europe-wide for its extensive forests, being the home of the Garajonay National Park and a pioneer in 'eco-tourism' dating back over 20 years, its obvious potential for powering itself through entirely renewable sources is wasted more than anywhere else in the Canary Islands.
The regional government wants to turn La Gomera into another Iceland by 2030, mirroring Europe's northernmost country's 100% green energy supply.
By then, it aims to have enough wind farms to create 8MW of power, sufficient solar panels to generate 5MW, and for 20% of the island's cars to be electrically-powered.
The overall objective is for the island, whose population is twice that of El Hierro and which has tourist resorts with capacity for 800 visitors (Ed: surely an error - see this post), to be entirely fossil-fuel free and rely on green energy for its electricity, heating and transport – lorries and buses will be electric or hydrogen-powered.
Hydrogen generators, water pumps and storage systems are being analysed as back-up for when there is insufficient wind and sun to cover the whole island's energy needs.
The considerable cost of this ambitious project would be offset within around seven to 12 years thanks to lower production expenses, meaning that by 2042 La Gomera will start to see a return on its investment.''

Monday, December 21, 2015

General Election Results 2015

How La Gomera and the Canary Islands voted:
La Gomera:
Please note that the above does not include parties that won less than 3% of the vote.
La Gomera itself has no voice in the Spanish parliament, but in the Spanish Senate La Gomera had one seat to fill and this was won yesterday by the new ASG party of the island's president C. Curbelo (see: Local elections 2015).

Dec. 20th 2015 election results in the Canary Islands, 
which have 15 seats in the Spanish parliament :
Note: Only parties that have won seats are shown above

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Serious accident in tunnel



There was a serious accident in the tunnel of Yorima on the road between Arure and upper Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera yesterday afternoon. A fifty years old male cyclist is reported to have collided with a bus inside the tunnel. Police and an ambulance as well as a doctor and a nurse rushed to the scene. The cyclist was later transferred by air ambulance to a hospital on Tenerife, where he was said to be in  'critical condition'. 

The tunnel of Yorima is about 625 metres long and does not have any illumination.

Archive image on left shows entrance to tunnel near Arure

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Two accidents leave one dead and one injured

Two separate accidents this weekend left one dead and one injured on La Gomera. 
First a local man in his eighties from the Arguamul area in La Gomera's north-west was reported missing by his family when he failed to return home late on Friday. Yesterday his body was discovered below a precipice near the chapel of Santa Clara, but the abrupt terrain made the recovery of his body extremely difficult, and only efforts by specialised mountain rescue teams finally resulted in recovering the corpse later on Saturday. The octogenarian was well known and respected in La Gomera, particularly for his reliable regular ringing of the the bells of the chapel of Santa Clara.
Arguamul seen from near Santa Clara
In a separate incident a 62-year-old woman who was out hiking in Valle Gran Rey suffered a fall and a suspected knee fracture. She had to be rescued by the GES helicopter and was transferred to the hospital in San Sebastian de La Gomera where she was said to be recovering from her injuries.
GES Search & Rescue helicopter in action (archive image)

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Rescued turtles released

Two loggerhead turtles which were recently found injured on La Gomera's black sand beaches were first brought for veterinary treatment and recovery to a sanctuary on Gran Canaria and then flown back to La Gomera for release into the sea. One weighed about 150 lbs and had head injuries, the other one was found suffocating due to plastic material. The ever increasing huge 'islands' of accumulated plastic waste in the world's oceans is one of the greatest pollution problems we face.
Leaving La Gomera   (Image: GOMERATVDIGITAL)