ECF collaboration episode: priority to renewables and energy poverty in Valencia
Until now, Valencia with its 800.000 inhabitants may be more known for its mild climate and lovely beaches than for its incredibly collaborative and forward-looking energy policy. In part 2 of our ECF collaboration lab series, we dive into Valencia’s impressive efforts to involve the local community in energy and climate matters. A big change of culture is about to happen. In this episode we chatted with some of the people who are driving this change: Carmen Castells, Valencia Energy Office, Indertec-Imedes and Fernando González. Fernando is Secretary of the Association which manages the energy community in the neighbourhoods of Ayora and Algirós. The city already counts several local energy cooperatives, but what was missing until now, was an energy community. Carmen and Fernando share the work they are doing to build strong energy communities and push Valencia forward. This episode and the collaboration lab were made possible thanks to funding from the European Climate Foundation (ECF). The ECF is an international non-profit and its great team promotes climate and energy policies in Europe. In 2019, the European Climate Foundation launched its Energy Democracy program. It focuses on the support of community energy projects both at the EU and national levels. europeanclimate.org