Time to join the cheap, green energy club
Energy communities offer savings for residents on their bills
RESIDENTS of San Miguel de Salinas are being urged to join a project to set up a local energy community, in order to promote use of renewable electricity and reduce the cost of bills.
A joint project by the San Miguel Arcángel residents’ association and the town hall, the savings ‘would particularly benefit the families who need it most’, and it would encourage generation of electricity in the same place as it is consumed.
In general terms, this will involve installing solar panels in public spaces and unproductive or degraded land to generate electricity to share with residents, the organisers noted.
Interested parties, under the legal umbrella of an association, will establish a collaboration agreement with the town hall.
The residents’ association and the town hall have been working on this project for several months, during which they have held meetings with businesses in the electricity sector that are not only
specialised in setting up projects like this, but also in installing solar panels and selling energy.
The driving force behind this initiative has been a group of 36 residents.
The ultimate aim is to establish a sustainable town that is resistant to the effects of climate change, which is among the goals of the European Green Deal and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Meanwhile, the facility for an energy community in Crevillente to start sharing the electricity they have generated for their own consumption was put into operation on Monday. It was subsidised by the regional government’s business competitiveness institute (Ivace) and consists of a car park in the rural district of El Realengo covered with 95 kilowatt-peak (kWp) of solar panels, which will save local residents money on their electricity bills.
COMPTEM-Crevillent was the first local energy community to be set up in Spain but the Ivace is supporting a total of 118 such projects with €5.2 million so they can be implemented on a massive scale, explained the institute’s director, Júlia Company.
The target is for every municipality in the region to have an energy community by 2030.
The Ivace is currently offering to subsidise up to 45% of the cost of projects by town halls, businesses or communities of property owners to generate electricity from renewable sources or waste for their own consumption.
The maximum amount of aid per project is €200,000, but this can be increased by 10% for medium-sized companies, and 20% for small companies, town halls, public institutions and not-for-profit organisations.
The ultimate aim of these communities has to be environmental, economic or social benefits for their members or the areas where they operate, rather than financial profits.