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1492
Discovery of the Island
Columbus sailed past El Hierro in 1492. It was considered the most westerly point of land on Earth before this. -
Consortium
The Gorona del Viento El Hierro consortium was formed in 1996. It included islanders, faculty and students from the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, consultants from the Spanish utility company Endesa, and representatives of the Spanish government. -
Clean Energy Lab
The initial plans to convert the whole island into a clean energy lab were greenlit back in 2002. -
Repsol
In August 2014, the Spanish Minister of Industry gave the multinational oil company Repsol permission to drill three exploratory deep-water perforations in the ocean seabed near the Canary Islands. -
First Fully Powered Island
In June 2016, it became the first island in the world fully powered by wind and water. -
Today
Today, the Gorona del Viento Power Plant is a closed-loop wind and water system with five windmills and two water reservoirs. Harnessing the Atlantic Ocean’s near-constant winds, the windmills combined capacity of 11.5 megawatts is designed to provide islanders with daily electricity while also powering three water desalination plants.
