The City Council has set up a stakeholder group composed of various social agents to boost renewable energy in Mondragon City, within the framework of the European initiative SHREC.
María Ubarretxena, Mayor: "We believe that this energy transition does not belong only to the City Council, so we consider it is important to involve the agents of the municipality in the process. Together we are more, the activity is more enriching and the different opinions of the municipality and region will be taken into account, taking out the best model based on agreement and consensus". Mondragon is the first municipality in the State and therefore a pioneer in making the leap to renewable energy. Therefore, at the end of 2019 he was selected to participate in the European project SHREC – SHifting towards Renewable Energy for transition to Low Carbon Energy."
Arrasate-Mondragón has created an engine group of social agents that held yesterday, January 15, its first meeting. Together with the City Council are part of it University Mondragon, Ikerlan, Goiener, and Fagor Taldea, while the Arrasate-Mondragón City Council adheres to this project with the Innovation Platform 2030 Debagoiena.
The next meeting will be held in early March with the aim of defining a long-term schedule, detailing the work dynamics and completing the planning. Mayor María Ubarretxena considers the first meeting to be very enriching: "We believe that this energy transition is not exclusive to the City Council, so we consider it important to involve the stakeholders of the municipality in the process. Together we are more, the activity is more enriching and the different opinions of the municipality and region will be taken into account, drawing the best ideas based on agreement and consensus, and launching pilot projects that may be innovative". Currently, in addition to Mondragón, the SHREC project consists of 7 European entities: 3 universities - Vilnius Gediminas University of Lithuania, Hanze University of Applied Sciences of the Netherlands and Mid Sweeds University of Sweden - 3 agencies of Government Energy - Slovakia's Agency for Innovation and Energy, the French Environment and Energy Agency Auvergne Rhone-Alpes and the Northern Montenia Regional Development Agency of Romania –. and a regional government – Piamonte Italy.
Mondragón is a benchmark in social innovation in Europe, but there is still much to go on in renewable energy. For this reason, Mondragón City has always been a pointer in many issues and in terms of the energy transition we want to be also innovative in the involvement of citizens, for which the idea is to launch a pilot project". The SHREC project will have a budget of 1,844,165 euros. Of this budget, EUR 164,448 will go to the Mondragon City project and will be financed by around 90% by Europe. Mayor, Maria Ubarretxena, said that "SHREC is a process of lifelong learning, in which all institutions and partner entities will enrich each other to achieve a single goal: make the transition to a low carbon model being more respectfull with our environemnet.
Committed to climate change Mondragon is already working in various policy areas related with the environemment. On one hand, work is being done on the recovery of industrial heritage with sustainable criteria for community use (the Kulturola and Juan Arzamendi buildings are examples of this). In addition, Mondragon City is already addressing the necessary urban transformation to adapt to the new paradigm of mobility and taking steps towards sustainability (ecobulevars, purchase of city forests like Etxezarreta, the creation of Antoña wetland or the creation of the bidegorri network or the TAO system are good examples.) This European programme aims to promote the use and production of renewable energy in industries, transport and housing to reduce CO2 emissions, and to give way to a low carbon model.
Thus, the development of SHREC aims on one hand to expand users' knowledge of renewables empowering population to make energy decisions more environmentally conscious, and on the other hand, to promote the possibility that the neighbourhoods themselves, constituting a consumer cooperative can be generators and consumers of their own energy. It should not be forgotten that Mondragón City has a long history of creating cooperative companies and that know-how can be valid by existing in this region some basic wickers that make the materialization of energy consumption cooperatives can be more effective in this valley than elsewhere.
Mondragon City has ratified its commitment to climate change and its firm commitment to renewable energy through the SHREC project. In fact, its participation in SHREC will allow the municipality to know and learn from the realities of associated countries to apply them later in Mondragón and, at the same time, serve as a for other municipalities. In this way it is intended to be a reference in Europe of local government committed to this matter.
