energy in community

This week the first two calls for aid from the strategic project (PERTE) for renewables, green hydrogen and storage have been launched, aimed at promoting pilot projects of the so-called energy communities. This figure, through which citizens have an active role in the sector against large companies, is beginning to spread throughout Spain, in the absence of specific legislation.

“We are immersed in an energy transition that we know what its end is, to achieve zero emissions, but for that not only do we have to change technologies and emissions, but we also have to change the structure. And this cannot be done by only eliminating nuclear and coal, but promoting renewables from the most micro level”, explains Joan Groizard, general director of the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE), the body that manages the aid.

The European Commission introduced this figure in the community legislation in the so-called Winter Package. And it established two definitions: citizen energy communities, included in the Internal Electricity Market Directive, and renewable energy community communities, included in the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive. Spain has not yet transposed any (despite the fact that it should have done it last year) something that it will do during this year, according to what it affirms Groizard, but it has succinctly included it in its planning, in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan or in the Self-consumption Roadmap, among others. “We have to legislate quickly to establish our own incentives because if they don’t, obstacles will be put in the way of their takeoff,” warns the president of the Spanish Association of Energy Law, Vicente Lopez-Ibor.

By energy community we mean a group of people, which can include SMEs or municipalities, who come together to advance the energy transition with the governance and control of all participants. “The objectives can be economic, but above all they must be environmental and social benefits,” he adds. Cristina Alonso Saavedra, responsible for Climate Justice and energy of the NGO Friends of the Earth. “In addition, participation must be limited to companies that historically participate in the energy sector to make these communities truly democratizing,” he says.

Citizen participation

According to a study by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in 2020, there would be some 33 energy communities in Spain. The IDAE has counted twenty on an interactive map, although some of these are initiatives yet to be developed. Still, the figures are far from the 1,750 in Germany or the 700 in Denmark, two countries with a strong tradition of community ownership and social enterprises.

“Citizens are direct and absolute participants in this transformation. It may be that I can’t generate because I don’t have space on my roof, but I make an agreement with my neighbor and we generate, sell, distribute or share,” he explains. Lucia Dolera, project director of APPA Renovables. An example is Gares Energía in Puente la Reina (Navarra), a town where a participatory process emerged that has just been organized as a neighborhood cooperative. The city council will cede a part of the town’s fronton to install photovoltaic panels for self-consumption, in exchange for the cooperative supplying energy to a social emergency floor. “The old town is historical heritage and the neighbors cannot install solar panels, but since the fronton is contiguous, it is a way for them to self-consume energy,” explains the mayor of the town Oihan Mendo.

New business

The collective self-consumption formula is the best known, but energy communities go much further. In addition, they are not only aimed at power generation, but also at other activities such as mobility or efficiency, which fosters new business models. This is the case of Som Mobilitat, a Catalan non-profit cooperative that since 2017 allows its members (more than 2,600) to share car rentals through a platform. «The big difference with other services, such as the one in Madrid, beyond citizen participation, is that we do it to remove cars from cities. It is designed to leave the city, “he explains. Ricard Jornet, president of Somos Movilidad.

Another example, also in Catalonia, is ‘Viure de l’aire’ in Barcelona, ​​an energy community project, in this case still incipient, which aims to replicate the experience of ‘Viure de l’aire’ in Pujalt, a town in the that some 600 families invested in the installation of a wind turbine that sells electricity to the market in exchange for some income. “When the investment has been returned, it will generate profits,” he explains. jordi ferrer promoter of ‘Vivir del aire’ in Barcelona.

Barriers to development

“The initial phase is to do it like in Pujalt, although if the regulations change, the project may change,” he explains. Ferrer. It refers to the fact that, currently, collective self-consumption is restricted to a maximum distance of 500 meters between the photovoltaic plant and each of the self-consumers and that is one of the great demands of the sector. “If people within 10 kilometers could be connected, that would include almost all the citizens of Barcelona. Then the numbers would come out better,” he adds. Ferrer.

But the truth is that the main barrier is the ignorance of the citizens and the bureaucracy, which promotes the leading role of the municipalities. “We cannot wait for a social conscience to be forged to promote the energy transition, that is why we set up the project and tell them to choose a piece of the installation,” explains Rubén Fuentes, advisor to the municipality of San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife). . This town has a pilot project underway in two municipal roofs that will be transferred to a neighborhood cooperative. “The main bottleneck at the beginning is to explain the idea, explaining what a non-profit cooperative is where the city council is a participant as an associate is difficult to understand. Now the key point is that there are no obstacles in the transfer of the roofs” , adds Sources.

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In Arroyomolinos de León (Huelva) they have just created an advice and support service as a starting point for the municipal energy community that aspires to install photovoltaic panels on a municipal roof and also in the school for collective self-consumption. “The issue of energy interests us especially because in the rural world there is a lot of ignorance and the oligopoly is rampant,” says Bosco Valero, coordinator of Alumbra Energy, in collaboration with the MUTI Association and the town hall.