Energy policies not only have to focus on municipal behaviour but also have to guide the running of the city, by making city residents jointly responsible. That means city residents have to be involved and take part in all the processes connected to the energy sector.
If we are to make the transition towards energy sovereignty into a collective action, we have to take public participation into account and increase the city’s energy culture in everyday life.
Important information-dissemination work is already being carried out at the Energy Advice Points, with local workshops and at La Fàbrica del Sol, as a central facility for the city’s energy education.
The Fàbrica del Sol is an environmental education facility promoted by Barcelona City Council’s Area of Ecology, Urban Planning and Mobility. It is open to everyone, and provides people with knowledge about the sustainability culture while also promoting it.
TO: Sustainable homes
‘TO: Sustainable homes’ is a demonstration of habits and energy-efficient and sustainable solutions in the home.
The prototype was presented at the 2019 Solar Decathlon Europe international contest where university students design and build efficient buildings that use renewable energies, and that take into account accessibility, resilience and health. The TO won various prizes in the 2019 contest, held in Hungary. After the contest, the TO was dismantled, shipped to and reassembled at the Besòs campus of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where it can be visited.
The TO is designed so that users can experience first-hand how it is to adapt their habits to be able to save energy and resources. It offers users an experience in which they learn about solutions that can be applied later in their own homes.
For this reason, Barcelona City Council along with the UPC made an assessment of the possibility of returning the equipment to the city to use it as demonstration equipment for all city residents.
'Get Some Energy' workshops
The Fàbrica del Sol offers the ‘Get Some Energy’ programme to all city residents, with the aim of working together towards a new energy model that is more sustainable, reducing energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency, favouring the production of clean energy in Barcelona and bringing it within society’s reach.
The programme offers an ongoing series of workshops and resources that provide city residents with the tools they need to improve their energy culture and to train them to actively participate in a more sustainable future.
The programme offers free loan and materials and workshops that are offered to both individuals and groups:
- Regular electricity
- Breaking down gas and electricity bills
- Energy improvement measures for the home
- Renewables in the home
- Everything is hidden in a digital counter
- You don’t play with energy
- Reduce spending and improve the comfort of your scale
- Energy calculator: how much energy do you use at home?
Videos offering practical advice
As well as workshops, the “Carrega’t d’energia” programme offers you short video courses with practical advice on saving energy and being more energy efficient at home. In less than 5 minutes, we'll show you some little tricks, such as using a timer, digital meters and saving energy with electrical appliances such as fridges.
City and Energy Transition Congress
The goal of the Energy Transition and the City Congress (CTEC) is to highlight the role of cities in driving the transition to energy sovereignty and generating debate around the city-energy pairing between all stakeholders involved: city residents and civil society, political and technical representatives, public authorities, national and international bodies, academia, the business sector and others.
The first edition of the CTEC was held in Barcelona on 6 and 7 March 2019. It was jointly organised by Barcelona City Council and the cities of Cádiz, Madrid, Pamplona, Valencia and Zaragoza, and in collaboration with national and international organisations.
The congress was attended by over 400 people from 30 towns and cities and featured 75 speakers who covered different topics relating to the energy transition in the city.
Energy Week
Barcelona City Council is playing an active part in Energy Week, which is held in June every year to coincide with European Sustainable Energy Week, a public awareness initiative relating to energy savings, efficiency and generation.
