In port policy, it is not enough to be a logistics node; one must be an energy hub to survive 2026. The Secretary General of Fedeport, Elba Bueno, manager of the Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands, and the Assistant to the Presidency of the employers’ association Juan Socas (Somar Capital), Bernardino Santana, executive of the shipping company Boluda y Suárez, acted this week as hosts for the Deputy Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julieta Schallenberg (PP). The visit was not a mere institutional stroll: it was to request support in accelerating technical procedures that are pending execution, mainly related to permits.
The tour of the Port of Las Palmas has drawn a perfect line between the past, present, and future of the sector. At Swiss Oryx Energies, their expansion project and modernization of energy services were put on the table, vital for maintaining the competitiveness of bunkering in the Atlantic and supplying fuel to markets such as Mauritania. The naval repair company Astican, a subsidiary of the Greek Laskadiris group, was also visited. Discussions about modernization plans took place at its facilities in light of new EU regulations. The partial assembly of the prototype from Madrid-based Esteyco for floating offshore wind in Las Palmas positions the port at the forefront of offshore engineering, a sector where the Canary Islands aspire to be Europe’s laboratory, even though companies like the Norwegian state oil company Statoil (Equinor) rejected in 2024 to proceed due to the financial burden required for the operation and more than a decade of waiting for permits that did not materialize in the Kingdom of Spain.
The visit to the Valencian Boluda Corporación Marítima and its logistics terminals for marine renewable energies confirmed to Schallenberg that the heavy infrastructure is already ready for the model shift. For its part, the new terminal of the Turkish-Canarian Global Ports Holding (where a company belonging to the president of Fedeport holds 20%) symbolized the friendly and modern face of the port: a commitment to high-level cruises that demand sustainability. The event led by the employers’ association of the 1978 Regime served for the Government of the Canary Islands to take note that ecological transition is not an abstract concept, but it has real business names and surnames. In a 2026 marked by tourism pressure and the need to diversify the economy, the Port of Las Palmas demonstrates that the naval industry and blue energy are the true counterbalance to the monoculture of the service sector. The key will be to see if the Deputy Ministry of Ecological Transition accelerates the processes so that those floating wind prototypes from Esteyco stop being projects and start generating real energy along the island coasts.
