Alicante City Council takes a big step towards energy self-sufficiency

In the face of rising electricity prices, the city authorities start detaching from the grid

On 13 August, the City Council of Alicante reported that it plans to reduce its traditional electricity consumption by a whopping 26%, starting next year. This will be possible thanks to making a definitive turn towards self-sufficiency in 30 municipal buildings and sites.

For the purpose, and for a price tag of almost 1 million euros, the authorities will begin with the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on the municipal properties. The whole installation process will reportedly take six months to complete.

A proverbial case of making lemonade out of climate lemons

The initiative is already in a tendering phase. It will not provide for electrical power storage but will have a system for measuring and recording solar data and power production and consumption information at the properties.

The sites cover the whole range of municipal buildings, including offices, markets, community centres, sports centres, healthcare facilities and firefighters, among others.

With this ambitious project, the City Council will see the imported energy consumption of the network reduced from 612,701 kWh / year to 454,120 kWh / year. A 26% decrease, which will be added to the savings in electricity bills that the Alicante energy self-sufficiency plan for the local schools has provided for a year already.

"It is a great project to promote sustainability and energy savings in our city, now that kilowatt-hour prices have skyrocketed and tripled compared those from a year ago," explained the Councilor for Infrastructure, José Ramón González. 

He concluded: "The City Council thus takes a further step in its commitment to sustainability and improvement of energy efficiency, in collaboration in this case with the Ministry for Ecological Transition".

A bold move and a good example of urban authorities leading the way on energy transition to alternative sources.