These kilowatts are mine!!
Final part
Within everyone's reach
In Spain, wind technology projects have been promoted so far only by companies, but it is within everyone's reach. The conditions are already in place for citizens to make a social appropriation of this technology.
The great source of inspiration of the project has been Denmark (and, to a lesser extent Germany), where in the late 80s and early 90s a movement of cooperatives was born to promote wind energy and gained great popular support.
Under the inspiration of Denmark, initiatives emerged to promote renewable energies in Cataluña. In this region, the first wind turbine connected to the grid was built (Vilopriu, 1984) and Ecotècnia was started up, and later integrated in the Mondragón Association and later absorbed by Alstom - or Ecoserveis.
While the big global companies failed in the development of wind technology, in Denmark the popular success was dazzling. Their government was the first to certify the modern wind turbine machine and create the conditions for the development of the technology.
Danish model
It is no coincidence that the machine purchased by Pujalt is from the Enercon brand, a family business that was born at the same time as Ecotècnia, and that supplies most of the wind turbines in association projects.
No less significant is the genesis of Danish wind cooperatives. At the end of the 70s, there was a very strong opposition movement against nuclear energy in this country, and that led to an agreement in the parliament to renounce to nuclear energy.
But more decisive was that all those citizens created OVE (Renewable Energy Organization); they came into contact with local manufacturers of agricultural machinery to develop wind turbines with powers below 100 kW. One of these became, over time, Vestas, global manufacturer of wind turbines.
The origins of modern wind technology have to be sought in this popular movement, not in laboratories or research centres.
An idea since 2009
The idea of building this mill was programmed around 2009, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Vilopriu mill, and until 2017 its promoters were overcoming complex bureaucratic procedures.
From the first moment, they were clear that the chosen place should have an easy connection to the network, good access and availability of wind resources. All these requirements are met by the Pujalt site, which has the backing of the city council and its residents.
This windmill, moreover, has avoided a process full of bureaucratic obstacles. They had to talk to several local authorities; in the process, they even demanded an archaeological exploration, when the land was agricultural land for thousands of years. And they have to obtain permission from the Catalan Office on wind farms, which is very demanding.
If we all get involved in projects like this, then energy supply would become democratic. The market already allows it.
The City Council joins in
It is true that there has been a boom in electrical commercialization, but the most important novelty is that some are emerging with new values, the commitment to renewables, participation or associations.
The Catalan capital has created the Barcelona Energia marketer, through which the city council of the Catalan capital managed from July 1 about 1,000 contracts belonging to 3,908 points of supply of the municipality and 19 bodies and entities of the group of municipal companies (offices, sports centres, etc) that were now owned by Endesa.
This initiative is an example of Barcelona city council's desire to ‘recover energy as a public service’ once the historical discontent with the current energy model has been verified.
It is also a response to the EU's challenge in favour of renewable energies (all commercialized energy will have a green certification).
The city council expects to achieve a saving of €710,000 by directly taking on energy management. The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (35 municipalities with common services in water, environment and urban planning) has embarked on the road so that the marketer can supply energy to the municipal facilities.
Barcelona Energia not only manages all the electricity consumption of the city council, but in January 2019 it will be opened to private individuals, so that Barcelona residents will have another new option when choosing an electricity company.
However, as the current regulation restricts the volume of electricity that can be sold by public companies to 20%, that means that only a maximum of 20,000 households could qualify for this modality.
Fair bills are promised
The city council has promised to carry out in parallel a configuration of the electricity bill for consumption sections (as in the receipt of water) and to take care of situations of people living alone and large families.
It also promises to take into consideration the problem of energy poverty, which has overflowed the municipal services in recent years, to compensate for the ‘aggressiveness of the electricity companies’.
For this reason, the Barcelona Energia companies will sign an agreement with the regional government to face up to the problem of vulnerable families. In parallel, the city council - through Tersa, which manages the Sant Adrià incinerator - will continue its plans to develop renewable energies (Forum's solar plant, Garraf landfill biogas ...) and has promised to support plant creation initiatives of self-consumption.
All this implies that we are at long last moving towards more democratic energy in Spain - energy that can be produced by ordinary people and used by the same people without having to pass by the till of large electrical companies.