Roquetes raises the momentum of energy communities as a local model

About thirty attendees participated on September 18 in the conference "The energy transition, challenges and opportunities for the future" , held at the Mercè Lleixà Library in Roquetes and focused on the potential of energy communities as a tool to promote the transformation of the energy model from the local level.

The mayor of Roquetes, Ivan Garcia Maigí, opened the event by highlighting the municipality's commitment to the energy transition and the desire to take a step forward "so that it reaches both public and private homes, a necessity for everyone."

From the Regional Office for Energy Transition, Gemma Tolosa highlighted that energy communities allow actions to be adapted to local needs, especially in rural areas, and can facilitate the creation of shared renewable energy systems.

Xavier Socias, representative of the OTECs, emphasized the territorial focus of this transformation: “Either it starts in the territory or it won't happen. Roquetes could be an example, with the industrial estate as the basis for an energy community.”

On behalf of the Tortosa Chamber of Commerce, David Utgés defended the need to promote collaborative models that allow companies and diverse sectors to join together: “If it is done together, it can work. We need to move from the individual to the collective.”

At the end of the day, a debate session was held, where attendees were able to resolve doubts and share concerns about the process of creating an energy community. As was emphasized during the session, for the project to be successful, it must be born from the collective will of the participants themselves, with the support of the administrations and entities of the territory.

Currently, OTECs are already active and offer free and personalized technical advice to companies that want to activate energy community projects, improve energy efficiency, install solar energy or access help lines.

With conferences like the one in Roquetes, the OTEs want to strengthen collaboration between institutions and companies and promote real, useful and sustainable initiatives that consolidate a more decentralized, competitive and adapted energy model to the territory.

Other voices from the territory

During the open debate, representatives of key entities in the energy sector also spoke, providing their vision on the real opportunities for the rural world and the local economy:

• Enric Sebastià, from the Cooperatives de Treball, emphasized the importance of collaboration between companies to make shared projects viable: “In the case of the industrial estate, the first step is to agree to carry out the project jointly and take advantage of the economy of scale.”
• Xavier Vives, from FEGICAT, highlighted the structural value of distributed renewable generation: “Taking advantage of solar energy allows us to decentralize generation, something that fossil fuels do not allow. And this generates investment and wealth in the territories.”
• Estanis Valmaña, from Unió de Pagesos , highlighted the growing interest of the livestock sector in the energy transition: “Sharing systems between farms can represent a real reduction in energy costs. The livestock sector is already very involved in renewables and can benefit greatly from it.”