Madrid, (EFE).- Madrid will be able to boast within two years of the largest urban beach in Europe and a wave park that will allow it to be a world surfing destination, in the new City of Sports whose works have already begun around of the Civitas Metropolitano stadium.
This beach is a collaborative project between Atlético de Madrid, Stoneweg and Teras Capital, of which the founding partner of the latter entity, Miguel de Lucas, explained to EFE this Wednesday that it will be a tourist attraction, since, in addition to attracting to the national visitor, it will generate a lot of international traffic, given “the good weather in Madrid and all its surroundings”, in addition to “the strength that the capital has throughout Europe”.
An investment of between 35 and 45 million euros
De Lucas has detailed that the project, which will have an investment of between 35 and 45 million euros, will have four or five hectares of land, in which, in addition to having a sandy area, a lagoon of between 1 .5 and two hectares of water, divided into four zones (two for left waves and another two for right).
This phenomenon is possible thanks to the incorporation of Wavegarden technology, a leading Spanish company in the creation of surf lagoons.
Today there are only seven facilities in the world like the one to be created in Madrid, with technology that generates waves every eight seconds, producing up to a thousand waves in one hour.
And although the artificial can often arouse criticism, De Lucas does not consider that surfing will lose “its essence”, since, he explained, many professionals train in these facilities, which allow more than twenty types of waves to be generated.
The project also contemplates the creation of a surf school and shop, a skate park, beach bars, play areas for the little ones and other beach sports activities on the sand.
A sustainable project
Although the current situation of drought may call into question the sustainability of this new project, the entities that create the beach ensure that the project has an ecological design.
As they point out, Wavegarden’s wave generation system stands out for being the most efficient on the market, with a maximum consumption of one kilowatt per hour (kWh) per wave, which is 10 euro cents per wave.
Likewise, it is designed to minimize energy losses, maximize the performance of the machinery and, in addition, recover and reuse part of the energy generated in each wave.