It could be titled: Government of the Canary Islands and Turkish opacity, a strategic alliance that ignores the necessary scrutiny of its actions in Las Palmas. The installation of a floating power plant at the Port of Las Palmas has become a politically charged, technical, and notably opaque exercise. The Powership Yasin Bey (shown in the photo and off the coast of Indonesia in 2020 according to Google Maps), owned by the Turkish group Karadeniz (Karpowership), is positioned as the chosen lifeline by the Government of the Canary Islands to prevent the energy collapse of Gran Canaria. However, behind the technical urgency lies a lobbying strategy marked by unusual darkness, where the faces of those conducting institutional visits remain shielded by a discreet corporate veil. So far, they have managed to discuss placing it in an area that will not be perceived by tourists and near the urban community of La Isleta.
While the Minister of Ecological Transition, Mariano Hernández Zapata (PP), defends the project as an essential emergency measure against the power deficit of land-based plants, the delegation tasked with materializing the Turkish landing, as mentioned by Canarymaritime, operates in a haze. There are no official statements identifying the emissaries by name who are traversing the corridors of power in Gran Canaria. This lack of transparency regarding interlocutors contrasts with the magnitude of an operation that aims to mortgage 200 meters of commercial docking line for five years and place a fossil fuel infrastructure just meters away from a densely populated urban area like La Isleta.
A faceless offensive: Who has requested the meetings?
The Turkish group’s offensive to overcome the reluctance of the Port Authority and the Cabildo of Gran Canaria unfolds away from media spotlight. The meetings held with the president of Ports of Las Palmas, Beatriz Calzada (CC), and the Gran Canaria president, Antonio Morales (NC), have served to present a catalogue of alleged benefits—safety, efficiency, and occasional use—but the identities of the negotiators conveying the message of Karadeniz Holding remain a mystery to the public. In any other strategic infrastructure bidding, the profiles of the commercial operators would be in the public domain; here, anonymity appears to be a tactical advantage to avoid deeper scrutiny of the political connections underpinning government support for the project.
Among business leaders, it is striking that a multinational seeking to manage the energy system of an island operates within Canarian institutions with such an ethereal representation structure. This opacity fuels the distrust of a port community that already watches warily as a ‘fossil patch’ is prioritized—burning petroleum derivatives in the Africa Dock. Critical voices, led by Nueva Canarias, the party of Morales, denounce not only the environmental impact but also the lack of transparency in an adjudication process that seems designed with its back turned to public debate.
The web of influences
The support that the project receives from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, under the auspices of the Popular Party, has turned the issue into a top-order political showdown. Under the argument of ’emergency,’ the regional government of the PP appears to have granted a fast track to the Turkish group. This swiftness, combined with the invisibility of the Karpowership operators, raises questions about the nature of the guarantees offered to the Turkish company in the offices where decisions are made.
The Port Authority of Las Palmas faces a crossroads. On one hand, the governmental pressure to accept an infrastructure that the port administration itself considers an obstacle to normal commercial activity. On the other, the need to preserve legal security and transparency. The final decision, which will fall on the Board of Directors of Ports of Las Palmas, will not be merely technical. It involves a choice about what type of governance the province wants: one open to citizen scrutiny or one that yields to the interests of a faceless lobby negotiating in the shadows.
While technicians assess the gas dispersion from the six chimneys of the Yasin Bey, Canary society continues to await a fundamental response: who are the men and women who truly hold the decision-making power behind the Turkish brand and why their identity is a state secret in a project that will affect, for at least five years, the air and economic operability of Gran Canaria. Energy democracy demands transparency; however, at this port, politics seems to prefer shadows.
