He is 82 years old and wants to give his town, Estamariu, in the Pyrenees of Lleida, opportunities like those that life has given him. Joan Planes Vila, founder of the company Fluidra, an Ibex 35 multinational specializing in equipment and connected solutions for the swimming pool and wellness sector, has created the Planes Corts Foundation (named after his children's surnames) to establish a population in the village , where there are only 130 people registered.
It wants to do this by creating sustainable projects, promoting photovoltaic energy, installing a biogas plant, building a community workshop or promoting craft workshops to encourage the creation of micro-enterprises. And do it by fostering pride of belonging.
"The aim of the foundation is to develop and make life in a village sustainable, because living in a village means working for the future and for the environment", says Joan Planes Vila. He lives between Estamariu and Sant Cugat.
"In a first phase, the foundation has installed solar panels on its buildings, the museum and a cow farm and has promoted twelve craft workshops, one each month, to encourage trades while working on a project to create the shared workshop The biogas plant will come later. "It has slowed down due to bureaucratic problems," says the director of the foundation, Montse Ferrer.
Only the energy projects, plates and biogas plant, have a budget of 1.2 million and have a subsidy of 385,000 euros from the CE-Implementa program of the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE).
To promote the change in the energy model, the foundation has created the Alt Urgell-Vall del Port Negre Energy Community, which works on the implementation of infrastructure in Estamariu and Bescaran, a town in the valley. The aim is to generate energy for the self-consumption of the inhabitants of the area at reduced prices.
"In Estamariu - says the director - we have Frisian (milk producing) and brown farms. Cow dung and slurry are a by-product that we intend to valorize beyond use as organic fertilizer for the town's meadows." In this sense, he explains that the methane released from the droppings is an optimal resource for the generation of energy and, for this reason, the project of the energy community envisages the implementation of a biogas plant in one of the farms of Estamariu.
What is already a reality are the craft workshops. Twelve have been scheduled for this year. Salvador Maura, from the Mas d'Eroles Dairy, in Adrall, has made two cheeses. For him, the creation of a community workshop for cheeses and horticultural products will be an opportunity for the territory. "It will make it possible to make cheese with own or purchased milk without the need to make the investment that a cheese factory would need and, moreover, since it will have a health record, it will be able to be marketed." Basketry, writing, wild edible plants, traditional spirits, furniture restoration, photography or dry stone walls are other topics of the courses organized by the foundation.
Ferrer believes that the foundation, in addition to revitalizing the Port Negre valley, which has just over 200 inhabitants, can serve as a test to develop a model that can be reproduced in other parts of the rural world, an idea that Salvador also shares maura
To strengthen the idea of belonging, the festival of rural art and culture Festimariu was held at the weekend and the village museum was opened. Streets, squares and eras have hosted pieces by twenty Pyrenean artists and in some homes you could see large-format photos with the faces of residents of the village over 70 years old.
Concerts, conferences, cinema and a debate on literature and ruralism have been the focus of the first edition of the festival, which will continue in the coming years. "Culture and identity root people in the territory, in addition to the economic stake, strengthening cultural activities helps. Culture is an essential part of development for the territory and this weekend was evident", concludes Montse Ferrer.
