Catalan government announces creation of public electricity company at COP26

President Pere Aragonès and climate action minister Teresa Jordà, both of whom are currently in Glasgow attending the COP26 UN climate change conference, have announced that the Catalan government will approve the creation of a public electricity company in November. The functioning of the company, which Jordà stressed “will not be a retailer, but will rather produce and manage energy,” will be defined in the sixth months following its approval.

“We need to distribute the generation of energy,” Aragonès said on Monday. “The government is committed to that which is our responsibility.” According to Aragonès and Jordà, this company will be key to ensuring electricity production is de-centralized and well-distributed across the territory.

Land owned by the Catalan government will be used to set up solar panels. “We want this public company to generate and manage energy in places private actors are not likely to invest in since it would not be financially profitable for them,” Jordà said.

Electricity self-consumption grants

Authorities announced a new set of €115 million grants aimed at both individuals as well as companies, local authorities, and civil society organizations to encourage the installation of solar panels and wind turbines for the self-consumption of electricity, as well as electricity storage systems for this purpose and renewable thermal energy sources in residential settings.

The benefits, which will be funded with money from the EU Next Generation recovery package, have the goal of bringing electricity production closer to where it is consumed. At the moment, there are 13,296 solar panel installations for self-consumption, of which 5,000 were set up this year, across Catalonia.