October 18, 2024 — The event held yesterday, part of Action 1 of the Barbanza Ecosocial Laboratory, aims to support ‘comunidades de montes’ in the transition to sustainable management models. The event was facilitated by Xavier Simón, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Vigo and representative of the Galician Wind Observatory (OEGA), who shared his experience as an expert in energy transition and rural development.

The meeting was attended by local authorities, ‘comunidades de montes’, and associations from Rianxo and other locations on the Barbanza Peninsula. Different energy community models and their respective benefits (within the particular regional context) were analyzed. Adapting the energy community model to the consumption needs of the members to ensure its efficiency and viability was highlighted as paramount.

Among the attendees were a number of ‘comunidades de montes’ (members of the Plataforma pola Defensa do Monte), partners in the project. Its president, Rafael Saco, emphasized that energy justice must be an essential criterion to ensure that all members benefit equitably. He also emphasized that energy communities represent a key opportunity to effectively address energy poverty by promoting fairer and more equal access to energy.

Many models exist; therefore, the next steps will be to explore which one best suits the needs of the Laboratory’s partner communities.

Simón emphasized the importance of leveraging the experience of other communities and utilizing existing infrastructure, such as rooftops, thus avoiding occupying land needed for food and timber production and reducing the need for large investments by using already available resources. The approach to collective energy production and consumption is more economical than the conventional model, as it allows for shared facilities and reduces costs.

The reasons for becoming an energy citizen are manifold. During the event, the most common ones were highlighted: promoting environmentalism, increasing self-sufficiency, generating new job opportunities, and responding to European directives on the impacts of climate change (contributing to a reduced dependence on natural gas and oil from outside the European Union).

The communities present emphasized the need for communal management of local energy. With extensive experience in the collective management of their resources, ‘montes vecinales’ are ideally positioned to move toward a self-managed energy model, which is emerging as an increasingly viable path.

After Simón’s presentation, the attendees opened a discussion on the local energy transition. A common thread was the need for a paradigm shift in energy consumption. The importance of collective autoconsumption as a key to savings was emphasized, as was the need to adjust our consumption habits to peak production times, with the goal of maximizing benefits and making more efficient use of available energy.

Barbanza Ecosocial Lab has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) of the Government of Spain, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Coordinated by Fundación RIA, the Barbanza Ecosocial Lab is a project dedicated to promoting the transition towards environmental sustainability and strengthening resilience in the territorial management of the Barbanza common land.