Cleanwatts, a Coimbra-based company, is launching a program aimed at people or organizations that want to create energy communityUsing PV panels without installation costs.
“We are launching a program to attract the most dynamic people, who have a taste for energy and who want to create their own energy communities in their area, in the area in which they live,” said company co-founder Lusa. Basilio Simويسes.
To create the community, it is sufficient to assemble 500 square meters of the roof, within a radius of no more than two kilometers, and connect to cleanouts.
“The surface of 500 square meters does not have to be together. The official explained that it can be five times 100 square meters or ten times 50,” stressing that the process “has no cost” to those who promote it with the company that invests in installing the panels , as well as community management…the force.
The minimum size of 500 square meters ensures the financial sustainability of the operation, with a price tag for energy”30 to 35% cheaper From the normal price a person pays today,” Basilio Simes stressed, also stressing that, for the time being, the government has stopped the cost increase in families, but if that stops, the difference will be even greater.
According to Cleanwatts Director of Renewable Energy Communities, Maria Benquerença, the process is “not too complicated”, with some information collected from all the people and organizations that want to be within a community, and then the process is submitted to licensing.
In addition to this programme, the company is also developing an initiative called 100 Villages, in which it has proposed establishing energy communities at 100 sites in the interior of the country.
In the meantime, Cleanwatts is already considering “going forward with another 100,” Maria Benquercensa said, noting that it should have some of the first sites to join the 100% working project before the end of the year, with licensing processes completed that allow Sharing energy with families and organizations connected to the community.
“We go to industrial areas And for the big customers, where there is a more obvious profitability, because the project is bigger and has a large scale, but we thought it was interesting to think about what energy communities could bring to a problem that interests us so much, which is energy poverty,” the person in charge called.
Outside the 100 Villages Initiative, it was cleanouts It has, in Portugal, more than a dozen energy communities already operating, with a predominantly industrial sector, which generates a total of five MW.
Although the company is aware of the municipalities’ interest in this type of project, it has decided to go ahead with the private initiative, because “what a year is very slow”, explained Basilio Simويسes.
“Almost everyone already knows what this is and understands the importance of this initiative, but they spend a lot of time thinking, they want to build a broad consensus and the process takes a long time, but we cannot delay, because energy, however, has already doubled in four or five the cost it was a year ago. Every month that passes, cameras and companies lose thousands of euros. And that is why we prefer to move forward and create communities.”
For Basílio Simões, the company’s model, in addition to working in decarbonization society and in the decentralization of energy production, they will also allow “democratization”.
“It’s the D that we really like, which is democratization, meaning that all of us, individuals, small businesses, social enterprises, can produce our own energy and also decide who to sell to. I can produce on the roof of my house and sell to my neighbor across the street, and I can make a decision on who it is.” “Part of my community. We don’t have to wait for the city council’s decision. We can start and then they join, if they want to,” Co-founder Lusa said.
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