POWERTY: energising communities to combat poverty

An EU-funded project is helping one of Spain's poorest neighbourhoods cope with   energy costs and the endemic problems of poverty

Transcript

00:00In Torreblanca, Seville, unity is strength when it comes to energy transition.

00:07Five European regions, including Andalusia, have taken part in PowerT,

00:12a project that supplies energy from renewable sources to the most vulnerable communities.

00:18But PowerT goes further, according to Joaquín Vilar of the Andalusian Energy Agency.

00:25Energy poverty is a problem that affects 50 million people in Europe.

00:30Now, the motto of Torreblanca is not to be known for poverty, theft and so on,

00:36but to be known for a neighborhood that bets on renewable energies,

00:40on energy communities.

00:42That is, we are empowering the municipality.

00:50Torreblanca, the fourth poorest district in Spain.

00:53Around 18,000 people live here.

00:56The Torreblanca Illumina Association has set itself the challenge

01:00of creating an energy and education community by 2020.

01:04Following a donation of solar panels,

01:06some of these have now been installed in two of the district's public schools.

01:11PowerT provided the resources and the management, and also more home.

01:24For the pilot project, just a few solar panels were installed in two state schools

01:29and Velet de Guevara.

01:31They produce 15 kilowatts of energy,

01:33which the primary school pupils use at home and in class.

01:54The total budget for poverty is just over 1.3 million euros,

01:58some 83% of which has been provided by the European Union's Cohesion Policy.

02:03The remainder was provided by the Andalusian Energy Agency and other partners.

02:10In Torreblanca, 14 families are benefiting, including María Ángeles,

02:14who is part of the energy community.

02:16She can see the difference on her own.

02:19Many times the electricity bill goes up

02:22because you have to turn on the air conditioning at night for more than a month.

02:26And now it turns out that you can't pay for it.

02:28So there is this energy poverty.

02:31And once the solar panels have started to work,

02:34we see that our electricity bill has gone down a lot.

02:39As part of PowerT, more than 50 good projects have been created.

02:43Some of them are now in the public schools,

02:46As part of PowerT, more than 50 good practices have been shared between different regions.

02:52The project has won several international awards.