FAEN about to complete 10 local sustainable energy and climate plans

Fundación Asturiana de la Energía (FAEN), the regional energy agency of the Asturias region, is participating in the C-Track 50 H2020 project. In line with the project objectives, they have been preparing the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) together with 10 municipalities of the region.

Before FAEN’s involvement, most of the municipalities had not done any work on energy efficiency. The support and information provided by the energy agency have allowed starting a completely new approach for them.

Several recurring needs have emerged from the numerous talks and interviews organised between FAEN and the municipalities. These needs have led to the development of:

• 9 Street lighting renovation projects using LED technology;
• 1 Singular Project “0 emissions” in a natural park;
• 1 ICT solution;
• 1 district heating Project using biomass.

In order to implement these actions, a budget of about €34 M is needed.

In this context, FAEN has assisted municipalities during the overall process and worked more specifically in the preparation of:

• Energy audit;
• Technical documents for the application forms related to funding;
• Documents for the public procedures of contracting.

FAEN has also considered different financing instruments to implement the foreseen actions, including new innovative financing instruments. After a detailed analysis, the most suited instruments to accommodate the projects’ requirements were:

• National funds;
• Mining areas funds;
• Cohesion Funds;
• ESCO’s (Energy Service Companies);
• External lighting service outsourcing.

The work is now almost complete and the 10 municipalities will realise important changes on their energy installations, increasing efficiency and energy savings. All these actions are in line with the National Energy and Climate Plan defined by the national government of Spain.

At the European level, one of the key objectives of the C-Track 50 project is to support at least 116 sustainable energy and climate policy action plans, which will be ready at the beginning of 2021. And because securing funding to implement SEAPs is often a challenge for municipalities, partners have also committed to developing at least 105 funding proposals to make this happen.

More information

Stay tuned to hear about the great work done by C-Track 50 project partners in the 11 partner countries!