Vice-president Yllanes highlights the IBE project as an example of the change in the energy model on the Islands, which will make it possible for the residents of Es Galatzó to reduce their electricity bills by up to 40%.

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The vice-president and councillor for Energy Transition, Productive Sectors and Democratic Memory, Juan Pedro Yllanes, this week presented what will be the first renewable energy community that will directly benefit the citizens of an entirely residential area. A project promoted by the Directorate General of Energy and Climate Change, through the Balearic Institute of Energy (IBE), which has the support of the Calvià Town Hall, and which will be located in the urbanization of Es Galatzó.

This energy community will install photovoltaic panels in different areas of the urbanisation, such as the school, the school and the sports centre, as well as other residential roofs and car parks. Initial calculations indicate that more than 900 kW of power can be installed in these spaces, so that residents can reduce their electricity bills by up to 40 %, paying at cost price for energy during production hours and without the need to make any initial investment. Around 80 % of the urbanisation’s consumption could be achieved with the photovoltaic energy installed on the roofs, and both public and private spaces would benefit.

“The energy transition is an opportunity to fight against climate change and energy poverty, from a socially just perspective and ensuring that everyone can benefit from self-consumption”, said Vice-President Yllanes, for whom “energy communities are the key to achieving a change in the energy model towards a more decentralised and participatory system. For this reason, we want these types of projects to be a benchmark and to be replicated in all kinds of neighbourhoods, towns and housing developments on the Balearic Islands”.

Yllanes recalled that the Next Generation funds represent a historic opportunity to change the energy model and that the Ministry of Energy Transition has already announced that it will soon open a call for proposals with an initial 100 million euros to promote these projects. “From the Balearic Islands we want to be leaders in these new collective forms of self-consumption, as we are in private self-consumption”.

For Mayor Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, “it is great news for Calvià that one of our areas is the first to develop an initiative like this. We are grateful for the Government’s significant investment,” he added, “which is committed to a sustainable, clean energy model in the Es Galatzó housing development, and which will also benefit the residents of the area by reducing their electricity bills, and at no cost to them.

“The energy transition must also serve for a new social model, where the collective is above the individual”, explained the director-general of Energy and Climate Change, Pep Malagrava. “Moreover, with these projects, climate awareness and the reduction of energy consumption improve. Energy communities have a great environmental and economic benefit, and the administrations must do everything in their power to make this change of energy model possible, based on proximity and cooperation between people, companies and institutions.

The IBE will manage the entire Es Galatzó energy community, which will be carried out in several phases and will be able to reinvest the income to pay for them. During production hours energy could be sold for around €0.075/kwh. Savings of 30 to 40 % are estimated to be made on users’ bills.

The Vice-presidency and Calvià Town Hall officials have explained all these details to the representatives of the different neighbourhood communities of the area, in a later meeting this afternoon in the CEIP Puig de sa Ginesta.

It should be noted that the IBE is already promoting this type of project in industrial estates. This is the case of the first two energy communities, in Sant Lluís (Menorca) and Marratxí.