The partner in the spotlight for this interview is Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, with its projects and goals. Let's ask them three simple but very interesting questions about energy transition and sustainability.
What does “energy transition” mean for your city? What is the current status and what are the future goals?
Energy Transition is the key element in the fight against climate change in cities and responds to the commitments made in the Covenant of Mayors. But it is also an opportunity for us to create a better, modern, innovative, and resilient city, capable of adapting to new climate conditions and generating economic activity around sustainability while achieving a healthier city with a better quality of life.
Pamplona's Energy Transition Strategy 2030 has recently been approved in the municipal plenary, with very ambitious emission reduction targets: 60% compared to 2005 at the municipal level.
What are your objectives within POTEnT? Have you already identified the projects you would like to study and transfer in your territory?
The overall POTEnT objectives translate into the following specific objectives for Pamplona:
- Increase in Renewable Generation
- Energy Governance, taking into account the new European legislative package on energy (the Winter Package)
- Empowerment and awareness raising by allowing better access to energy information and providing basic training.
In line with the above mentioned objectives, the main actions of our draft POTEnT Regional Action Plan are:
- Energy Communities and Self-Consumption
- Smart Energy Management – Internal (municipal buildings) and city approach
- One stop shop for Energy Information
In this sense, we have identified several projects from POTEnT partners, mainly from ALOEN, Parma and Ettlingen, which are being of great inspiration and the basis for our Interregional Learning.
Your city is involved in several European projects, including the smart city project STARDUST: is there any connection with POTEnT and how do they contribute to your ambitions when it comes to energy transition?
Pamplona City Council is involved in several European projects related to the POTEnT, where the added value of working with partners from all over Europe is greater than the financial funding received.
In the H2020 SCC1 STARDUST project you mention, we are piloting new approaches and energy systems, including a smart data platform, and proving that they are viable and cost-effective. It is serving as a testbed and testing model for innovative solutions that we can then scale up and apply at a city level.
We are also participating in the 100 Smart Cities Challenge where, hand in hand with the local ecosystem, we are making progress in the development of solutions in the fields of energy and mobility in collaboration with the network of cities participating in the programme.
Finally, we have recently been approved a project for the development of a positive energy neighborhood in the H2020 Green Deal call, which will allow us to advance in the development of energy communities and smart energy production and consumption systems.
