The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) carried out a new environmental sampling campaign this week at its Test Site, further strengthening the long-term data series it has maintained uninterruptedly since 2011. During the operation, PLOCAN’s technical team collected essential data for characterizing the marine environment and assessing the environmental status of the area, including parameters such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, turbidity, and chlorophylls, among others.
Additionally, this new campaign enabled a detailed characterization of the marine environment in the area where the PHAROS project demonstration will take place—an essential step prior to its implementation. This European project aims to promote nature-based solutions, environmental restoration, and sustainable aquaculture across the Atlantic region. The data obtained will serve as a reference to ensure that the tests are carried out in an environmentally controlled and scientifically validated setting.
PLOCAN’s Test Site continues to consolidate its position as a leading multipurpose testing facility for ocean innovation, hosting a wide range of technological prototypes. Notable examples include W2Power, from the AquaWind project, a floating platform with a dual wind turbine system combined with digitalised aquaculture to optimise the multiple uses of marine space; and OTEC, from the PLOTEC project, a clean energy generation prototype that harnesses the ocean thermal gradient and is designed to operate even under extreme weather conditions, such as storms and hurricanes.
Other notable initiatives currently deployed at the Test Site include WEC by Wavepiston, a wave energy technology that harnesses wave power through converters that transform wave motion into electricity and desalinated water; and ELICAN, from the ELISA project, Spain’s first offshore wind turbine featuring a gravity-based foundation structure and a telescopic tower, developed by Esteyco and installed at PLOCAN’s Test Site as a demonstration of fixed offshore wind technology.
Through these actions, PLOCAN reaffirms its role as a leading European marine research infrastructure, as well as its commitment to sustainability and the development of innovative technological solutions for the ocean.
