Barcelona goes solar with €12 million plan

Barcelona City Council has announced a €12 million ($14.1 million) plan for the deployment of rooftop PV systems on the city’s public buildings.

The new initiative is part of the program “Programa de Impulso a la Generación de Energía Solar”, which was announced by the city administration in March and is aimed at promoting solar for self-consumption in the city territory.

The city administration has so far installed PV systems injecting power to the grid with a combined capacity of 752 kW. The new projects, however, are planned to be for self-consumption and to rely on storage, where possible. Of these projects, four are currently under construction, while another six projects will be tendered soon, the city council said. On top of this, Barcelona’s administration is also planning to tender another 31 rooftop PV projects totaling 1 MW in the near future.

The plan, which does not exclude the participation of private investors, also entails solar rebates that may cover up to 60% of the cost for buying and installing a PV system, as well as fiscal incentives. At the same time, the government of the city will create a public power distributor specializing in renewable energy, which will start operating in the first half of 2018 and will sell power to private citizens and to the City Council.

Barcelona also recently launched an on-line platform to inform its citizens on developments in the city’s energy transition.