That a nationalist government championing the defense of Canarian speech would add a Z to a company name is an unmistakable irony. It is the silliness of putting ‘zetas’ in things that Unión Fenosa popularized when it created the engineering firm Soluziona. This is what has happened to the historic Megaturbinas Arinaga Sociedad Anónima. The latest registry entries in Las Palmas confirm that this subsidiary linked to the Port of Las Palmas and managed by the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC) since the time of José Manuel Arnáiz has formalized a change of corporate name and will now be called Azelmar Tecnología SA.
Behind this corporate move lie echoes of the turbulent ‘wind power case’ that shook the islands two decades ago. It was the former director of the Port of Las Palmas, Esteban del Nero, who told a parliamentary commission of inquiry in 2006 that the minutes of the board meeting held on November 17, 2004 — at which Megaturbinas supposedly ruled out entering the regional wind power tender — were false and had never been approved.
According to Del Nero’s testimony, that meeting descended into a bitter confrontation between the former president of the Port Authority, José Manuel Arnáiz, representing the Fundación Puertos, and the Cabildo official who reported the scheme, Francisco Cabrera, representing the Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria. Cabrera directly accused Arnáiz of manipulating Megaturbinas’ decision to favor the interests of a private bid. Del Nero himself also acknowledged holding prior meetings with businessmen and executives from SPA months before the regional government publicly announced the call for the failed tender.
Today, the corporate transformation marks a decisive turn for a company whose balance sheet contains a fascinating paradox: an expanding asset base and rising net worth, set against virtually nonexistent operating activity, symbolized by the prototype once installed by Gamesa, now burned out and inactive at the industrial port. At the time, Francisco Trujillo, now director of the Port of Las Palmas, was reportedly working at the SPEGC.
Accounts
The financial statements for fiscal year 2024 reflect a pattern of asset accumulation rather than industrial production. The company’s total assets grew substantially, by 55.2%, from €2,008,905.28 in 2023 to €3,119,227.35 in 2024. Net worth followed a similar upward trajectory, rising 21% from €1,292,127.42 to €1,563,976.12 over the same period.
Revenue also posted a significant increase, with operating income rising 65% to €251,793.26 in 2024, compared with €152,614.54 the previous year. However, beneath this accounting performance lies an anomaly typical of special-purpose vehicles and asset-holding companies: the company reported an average workforce of zero employees in both 2023 and 2024.
The transition from Megaturbinas to Azelmar Tecnología formally marks the definitive abandonment of the era of capital-intensive wind power testing. The original name reflected the island’s ambition to turn Gran Canaria into a testing ground for high-capacity onshore and offshore wind turbines. However, technical setbacks, the physical deterioration of the facilities and the weight of past irregularities left the infrastructure stranded behind security fences.
The new brand, Azelmar Tecnología, points to a diversification into maritime engineering services, technology management or simple asset administration. By shedding the Megaturbinas name, the board seeks to dissociate €3.1 million in assets from the ghosts of the wind power tender and the visible scars along the Arinaga coastline. It remains to be seen whether the entity will use its financial firepower to promote new projects in the archipelago or continue as a staffless structure to safeguard inherited assets. But the message from the Companies Registry is clear: the era of the megaturbines has been buried.
The article Las Palmas Port subsidiary renamed Azelmar Tecnología was first published on canarymaritime.com.
