Citizens of Ispaster: committed to their energy community

Ispaster aims to become a self-sufficient, renewable and sustainable municipality, reducing its emissions and lowering its carbon footprint. This was the motivating force behind joining the LocalRES project.

The municipality has been implementing measures to adapt to and mitigate climate change for years. Including the creation of a heat network for heating by biomass boilers and solar thermal panels, the installation of electric car charging points and PV panels and batteries in public buildings.

An Energy Community for Ispaster’s neighbours is currently in the works. Photovoltaic panels will be installed in some citizens’ roofs, and the electricity generated there will be available to any member of the Energy Community.

Citizen participation has been essential for the implementation of this project. Fortnightly meetings are organised, reuniting the citizenship with Tecnalia, Barrizar and Aiguasol, the companies collaborating in this project. These meetings often last all afternoon and go into the evening. Attendees discuss in groups and conclusions are later compared. Every aspect of the Energy Community of Ispaster, Ekogella, (quotas, design, facility location, operation) has been workshopped this way.

The attendance, participation and interest of the people of Ispaster has been instrumental to starting this project on the right foot. These steps will make it possible to improve the resilience and flexibility of the energy system, reducing the carbon footprint of Ispaster and contributing to the improvement of the environment and quality of life of the municipality.