About Guzmán Renovable
An innovative rural energy community in Spain
Rural energy community
Guzmán is a very small village of 100 inhabitants on the Ribera del Duero in Burgos, about 250 km from Madrid and Bilbao. This village belongs to what is called «Empty Spain», an area in which years of migration and institutional neglect have caused a terrible depopulation.
Guzmán Renovable has been formally established as a non-profit association at the beginning of 2022, being one of the first rural energy communities in Castilla y León and also in Spain.
The main objective of the association is to contribute to energy sustainability in rural areas, promoting the production and consumption of renewable energy by the local population, city council and municipal companies.
Likewise, it is intended to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the cost of the member’s bills, generating social and economic benefit in the village.
Guzmán Renovable aims to improve the quality of life of the people of the village and create a project that generates bonds and social value locally.
The Team
We are people committed to our little village
who want to change things starting with what we have most at hand: the energy we consume. We started as a small group of seven people and more people from our town have joined us.
Trajectory
• In the middle of the year 2020, a group of people living in Guzmán come together to think about how to improve the efficiency of the community facilities.
• In February 2021, a subsidy is obtained from the Burgos Provincial Council (SODEBUR) to install biomass heating in the municipal buildings and in the former school building, now for community use.
• During the summer of 2021, a study on energy consumption and possible production with a photovoltaic plant is presented. The study was carried out by students from the Bilbao School of Engineering of the University of the Basque Country as part of their Final Degree Project.
• The idea of creating an energy community with neighbors from the town and with the town hall also began to be discussed and planned.
• At the same time, a managing group of citizens promotes and monitors different activities.
• Socio-cultural activities on energy efficiency are organized: 3 informative talks in the village on climate change, on electricity bills and on the creation of an energy community.
• In January 2022, the ‘Guzmán Renovable’ Association was formally established, with a total of 13 members and the town hall.
• A collaboration agreement is signed with the renewable energy cooperative Energética Coop so that 100% of the energy consumed by the town hall comes from renewable sources.
• In June 2022, a grant is obtained from the CE IMPLEMENTA program of the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO), within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed with NextGenerationEU funds from the European Union, to install a community photovoltaic plant and a system that measures what is produced and what is consumed.
Financial support from the European Union:
This project has been selected in the First call of the incentive program for unique pilot projects of energy communities (CE IMPLEMENTA Program), within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Project data
- Investment made: €43,474.38
- Funds obtained: €22,985.77
- Scope of the work carried out: 30.3 kWp photovoltaic solar installation for collective self-consumption at homes, council and companies in the municipality of Guzmán (Burgos). Real-time data monitoring system for energy production and consumption for each supply point. Talks and individualized advice to improve the energy efficiency of homes and optimize photovoltaic self-consumption.
- Energy savings obtained: (Data yet to be calculated. Previous estimate: approx. 30% of the energy consumed by homes will be replaced by photovoltaic solar energy)
- Power of the generation facility (kW): 30.3 kWp
- Estimated annual energy produced by the facility: 42,128 kWh/a
- % of consumption of phtovoltaic energy produced: 98%
UPDATE 6.7.2023
After 6 months of waiting due to delays in the grid access procedures completely unrelated to our association and the installation company: We are finally starting the PV installation in #Guzmán!
As you know, this is a project promoted thanks to the work of our energy community with advice from Energética COOP and the support of the Next Generation European funds managed by IDAE. To all of you who are making this projekt possible: Thank you very much!
Contact us
Stay in touch!:
correo @ guzmanrenovable. org