Estamariu, a municipality in Alt Urgell with 130 inhabitants, is in the news these days for having started 2024 by opening a bakery, the first store in the town after the last one closed more than 25 years ago. The Alt Urgell-Vall del Port Negre Energy Community Association, promoted by Estamariu together with the neighboring town of Bescaran, is having less luck – for now.
"We have installed 80 kw of photovoltaic solar panels but they are not yet in operation because we are pending registration in the Self-Consumption Registry of Catalonia (RAC)", laments Montserrat Ferrer Ortega, director of the Fundació Planes Corts, the driving entity of the energy community of Estamariu and Bescaran together with a group of neighbors. The Alt Urgell-Vall del Port Negre Energy Association is also in the process of starting up a biogas plant. "The plant is built, but it is in the factory waiting to be moved and installed once we have the license", explains Ferrer.
The wait of this group of neighbors has a deadline: July 2024. “If in six months we do not have all the permits and all the works have been carried out, we will not know what will happen to the subsidy of 385,000 euros that they have granted us,” he warns. the director of the Planes Corts Foundation, an institution promoted by Joan Planes Vila, founder of the listed company Fluidra and son of Estamariu.
“Energy communities are growing exponentially,” says Anna Domenjó Pijuan, commercial technical director at Electra Caldense. According to the Institut Català d'Energia, in Catalonia there are a thousand registered self-consumption collectives (comparable to energy communities), but "there are many more pending connection, especially due to problems with the distributor or marketer," says Domenjó. The expert acknowledges that it has been difficult for the energy communities to land at the legal and processing level, but points out that great progress has been made. "From Grup Electra, we have processed and connected 72 energy communities, also industrial, and from the Elecsum platform we manage 2,416 kWn in collective self-consumption facilities, with 227 connected users and 1,400 registered users pending activation."
Despite the progress made and the important public subsidies, Domenjó recalls that Spain has still not fully transposed the directive (EU) 2018/2001 on renewable energy sources, which includes energy communities. The deadline to transpose the European standard into national legislation expired on June 30, 2021.
Most energy communities opt for solar photovoltaic installations, but other renewable energy sources are making their way. This is the case of the Alt Urgell-Vall del Port Negre biogas plant, but also of the heat and cold network designed by the Balenyà Sostenible energy community. “It is an absolutely pioneering project in Spain and has generated significant expectations because it can represent a radical change compared to traditional thermal energy models, based on diesel and gas,” says Ramon Roig Soler, spokesperson for Balenyà Sostenible.
The heat and cold network of this energy community in the Osona region seeks to offer heating and air conditioning to a neighborhood of about 120 homes. “It will be a 5th generation network, with two geothermal wells and a surface network working at very low temperatures, which greatly reduces energy losses in transportation,” explains Jesús Teixidor Graugés, industrial engineer at the Suno Enginyeria de Serveis Energètics cooperative. in charge of the project. Within each home, the network will be connected to geothermal heat pumps and when the energy from the network is not enough, these pumps will be powered by solar energy generated by solar panels, also from the community.
Balenyà Sostenible has 13 months to carry out the works, with possible extensions of seven months, which in no case can go beyond December 2025. The network investment is 1.2 million euros, plus 0.6 million to expand solar photovoltaic capacity. In total, the community has a 60% subsidy, as long as it meets the deadlines.
