The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) is an innovative university in teaching, research, management, and social impact activities. As an institution, it is heavily invested in environmental quality and sustainable development, the promotion of solidarity and cooperation between peoples, and in contributing to finding solutions to social problems and fostering international relations from our Atlantic insularity.
In its mission of promoting research, improving environmental quality, and fostering sustainable development, the ULPGC forms part of the DESAL+ Living Lab Platform in collaboration with different companies, research organisations, and institutions. The DESAL+ Living Lab Platform addresses the challenges associated with water desalination and the desalinated water-energy nexus. These challenges are tackled from the perspective of energy sustainability and in terms of both efficiency and the integration of renewable energies, an area of particular interest to the ULPGC.
In the DESAL+ Living Lab, the goal is to respond to global challenges related to seawater desalination by providing researchers, organisations, and companies from all over the world with unique infrastructures that make the Canary Islands a focal point in this field. The search for solutions to issues of worldwide impact, such as the need to satisfy the ever-growing demand for freshwater (which can be partly solved through sustainable practices of water desalination), highlights the experience and know-how of the Canary Islands in this area through this Platform.
The ULPGC, through its numerous researchers in the GRRES (Group for Research in Renewable Energy Systems), and together with the other members of the DESAL+ Living Lab Platform, have proposed solutions to different challenges in this field. I would like to highlight the contribution of the ULPGC in tackling the challenges represented by the desalinated water-energy nexus, and in particular the work that has been undertaken in the development of autonomous desalination systems powered by renewable energies, mainly wind and solar energy but also, though from a less advanced standpoint, wave energy.
The ULPGC is also a major contributor to and participant in various research projects, such as those aimed at increasing the contribution of renewables in island systems through the operation of large desalination plants powered only by renewable energies or others which focus on the development of forward osmosis.
The essence of any university is of course the education and training it provides. In this respect and in this particular field, the ULPGC has designed and run a Postgraduate Course on “Desalination and the Use of Renewable Energies” for students from the Canary Islands, Mauritania, and Cape Verde, promoting international cooperation and training at the same time. In order to achieve the greatest possible impact, both scientifically and for society, the research carried out by the ULPGC in relation to the DESAL+ Living Lab has been published in more than a dozen articles in indexed scientific journals of recognised international prestige.
The above has all been achieved thanks to the firm commitment of the ULPGC researchers involved in the project and the collaboration of all the partners of the DESAL+ Living Lab Platform, with special thanks to the ITC in all areas.
Contact
- Phone: +34 928 45 18 36
- Email: julieta.schallenberg@ulpgc.es
- Website: www.ulpgc.es
