Rubí Brilla is a strategic initiative launched by the city council of the municipality Rubí near Barcelona (Spain) with the objective to foster renewable energy use in industrial, commercial and domestic environments and thereby improve the territory’s competitiveness and environment. Rubí has the ambition to become a national and international benchmark for energy efficiency. The initiative originated from the mayor’s commitment to achieve the climate and energy goals agreed on in the frame of the Covenant of Mayors.
For the fourth time already, Rubí Brilla celebrates its yearly congress for an energy model change, this time with a focus on sustainable mobility. The congress was furthermore linked to the 1st Fair of Electric Vehicles this year. Both, the congress and the fair have encountered large interest by the public. More than 200 people were present at the Congress that took place on 24th November 2017 in the municipality’s public library Mestre Martí. People could also follow it via a live streaming.
The Congress was structured around several expert roundtables on different subjects as well as short presentations on success cases. The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, EV Energy project partner, had the chance to present our project on the congress’ stage. Cristian Bardají, the presenter, caught the public’s attention by giving a review on the state-of-the-art of electric mobility in the different partner countries. Especially a view to our Dutch and Swedish partners, which are very much ahead in terms of sustainable mobility development in European comparison, could deliver inspiring input and motivation to follow their track.
The expert roundtables concerned several subjects surrounding new models of sustainable mobility in cities. More concretely, electric vehicle technology, infrastructure, exploitation models and regulations as well as advantages and inconveniences of new mobility models. Both roundtables consisted of high level experts from very diverse backgrounds with different perspectives. They ranged from industry representatives, public institutions to researchers, activists and young entrepreneurs. One of the experts was Hugo Niesing, director of Resourcefully.nl, who closely collaborates with EV Energy project though our Interreg partner project SEEV4-City.
In the afternoon the congress went on with the presentation of a selection of practical cases that were later put to discussion. The format was moderated by a dynamic presenter, Bruno Sokolowicz, and enriched by questions and comments from the interested and critical public, which made it very diverting.
Besides the very interesting insights to the different sustainable mobility sector areas, the congress above all made clear again that the mobility and energy transition “represents one of the most pertinent challenges to be addressed by cities”, as the mayor Ana M. Martínez put in in her inauguration speech.
You can find the Programme of the Congress here (Spanish).
