The Energy Observatory is the Barcelona Energy Agency unit responsible for planning and monitoring the energy situation in the city. The Energy Observatory obtains information about energy and publishes a regular energy assessment, aside from planning specific short-term initiatives regarding the city’s energy and monitoring these initiatives.
It is necessary to carry out constant updates of the information in order to manage the city’s energy reality. Having data available and the evolution of this data enables us to rate the energy policies that are implemented in the city and devise lines of action for the future.
Barcelona assessment
Barcelona consumes 13,222 GWh a year and, of these, only around 1,229 GWh are produced from renewable energy sources. To reduce its overall consumption by an average of 7.95 MWh per resident, the City Council intends to minimise the city’s dependence on fossil fuels, promote local generation of renewable energy and thereby cut CO2 emissions, and design a new, more sustainable energy model. We need to bear in mind that 2020 saw a drop of 15,320 GWh a year compared to 2019 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and that such reductions are not consolidated.
The city currently generates 4,373 GWh of electricity a year locally, a quantity representing around 76% of the electricity consumed in Barcelona. But only 1% of this energy is renewable, so the challenge is twofold, to generate more local energy and ensure it is clean.
What can we discover from this assessment?
All this data is provided in the new 2020 Barcelona Energy Assessment. It should be noted that the data can be viewed by district, the impact of energy consumption in terms of GHG emissions, the main cause of climate change, and the trend in emissions in Barcelona in recent years.
It also includes the City Council Energy Assessment, which represents 4.2% of overall consumption in the city. This consumption has remained more or less stable in recent years, despite the increase in the number of municipal facilities and services. This is due to a variety of energy saving initiatives in an extensive range of areas such as buildings, facilities, lighting and vehicle fleets, among others.
Energy consumption in Barcelona. Sankey diagram
Below is the energy Sankey diagram for Barcelona. This type of diagram allows the quick visualisation of how energy consumption is distributed across the city by sectors and sources, which is renewable and which is not, and what relationship exists between them.
Renewable energy generation in Barcelona
Renewable energy generation in Barcelona is focused mainly on thermal solar energy and photovoltaic solar energy. The following charts show the development of their introduction in the city.