Strategies for the development of PV in Barcelona · and the Barcelona Energy Agency was found to be essential for the success of the strategy. Besides regular meetings, visits to

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Strategies for the development of PV in Barcelona Barcelona is the capital and most populous city of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain. A major economic centre with one of Europe's principal Mediterranean ports and the second largest city in Spain, Barcelona is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination with a rich cultural heritage particularly renowned for its architecture. Barcelona City Council is a pioneer municipality supporting energy sustainability. In 1998 a political decision was made to promote energy sustainability through the use, amongst others, of renewable energies. It was the first European city to develop a Solar Thermal Ordinance (1999) making it compulsory to use solar energy to supply at least 60% of hot water demand in all new buildings, renovated buildings or buildings changing their use. In 2000 the first integration of PV in buildings was realised (Barcelona City Council building), since then an increasing number of projects have been carried out, both in public and private buildings. In 2002, the Barcelona City Council's Plan for Energy Improvement 2002-2010, (“Plan de Mejora Energética de Barcelona” PMEB) [1], was developed in order to meet Barcelona City Council's international environmental protection commitments. Specific goals of the Plan are to increase the use of renewable energy (especially solar energy), to reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources and to lower the emissions produced by energy consumption. The PMEB foresees the realisation of 55 projects for local action, where information and citizens’ participation are essential factors to achieve a change in the present energy consumption patterns. Also in 2002 the Barcelona Energy Agency (Agència d’Energia de Barcelona, a public consortium comprising the Barcelona City Council, public institutions related with energy and the environment, and universities) was created with the following objectives:

• To guarantee the application of the PMEB. • To foster energy saving and energy efficiency. • To promote the use of local renewable energy sources. • To continue to improve the quality of energy services. The Barcelona Energy Agency has assessed the potential of different renewable energy technologies to provide renewable energy in the city. The assessment only considered solutions technically feasible, economically cost-effective, environmentally acceptable and socially desirable. The results indicated that the potential resources available were:

• 7-14 MW of PV technology • 6-12 MW of wind • 2-5 MW of biomass • 0.2-0.5 MW of hydroelectric.

PV in Barcelona City Council “Novissim” building


The maximum PV potential refers to the roof surfaces of existing (in year 2000) commercial, services, offices and public buildings, together with new buildings expected by 2010. For all these buildings an electricity coverage of 10-12% from PV technology was proposed within the PMEB (see section “The Solar Photovoltaic Ordinance of Barcelona”), so the figures can be considered highly realistic. This analysis has found PV to be the technology with the highest potential in a city like Barcelona, characterised by a compact urban layout and a good solar resource (1500 kWh/m2 annually on a horizontal surface). Several strategies are being developed by the Barcelona City Council to promote the integration of PV at urban scale. These are described in the following paragraphs. Demonstration PV projects in municipal buildings In 2002 the Barcelona Energy Agency (AEB) was entrusted by the Barcelona City Council to integrate PV in highly visible public buildings. Three different objectives were established:

• Energy objective: to support the use of renewable resources.

• Educational objective: to bring knowledge of renewables to the users of highly visible public buildings (such as social centres, schools, libraries, etc.), which are spread throughout the city and have different technical and architectural possibilities.

• Stimulating objective: through the promotion of PV by the municipal administration, to develop projects that can be used as a model for the private sector, thus creating confidence and stimulating the market.

To meet these aims, the following process was implemented:

• Meetings with the Technical Services of the municipal districts were held, in order to explain the initiative and ask for a selection of buildings suitable for PV integration. (Note: the Technical Services of the City Council are decentralised in the 10 municipal districts).

• Once the list of initially selected buildings was received by the AEB, the basic projects for the technically suitable buildings were designed and sent to the districts’ Technical Services for approval. Existing building structures were assessed in all cases for support of the PV modules, although in many cases new structures were necessary.

• Execution of the tenders for the different projects approved, according to the type of PV system and the state of the buildings (finished, under construction or renovation). The districts’ Technical Services participated in the assessment of proposals received and awarding of the finally selected projects.

• Construction of the PV systems, in collaboration with the districts’ Technical Services.

• Public presentation of the projects, in collaboration with the municipal districts. PV in Masia de Can Cadena (traditional catalan house used

for environmental education and urban orchards)


Financing of the PV installations was shared between the AEB and the municipal districts, the districts covering the cost of the supporting structure in the case of new buildings and the AEB the remaining costs. All PV projects include an automated monitoring system that supervises general operation variables and sends an alarm (via Information and Communication Technologies) if a malfunction occurs to the General Services of Barcelona City Council, responsible of the PV plants monitoring and maintenance. Real-time monitoring data can also be publicly accessed via the internet (Canal Solar BCN [2]). By the end of 2008 39 projects had been carried out in public buildings across all city districts, with a total installed PV power of 1.65 MWp:

• Barcelona City Council and districts buildings: 5 projects, 99 kWp. • Social and cultural centres: 10 projects, 106 kWp. • Primary and Secondary schools: 12 projects, 90 kWp. • Public libraries: 6 projects, 65 kWp. • Pergolas in public areas: 3 projects, 1198 kWp. • Others (parks, markets, urban waste disposal plant): 3 projects, 90 kWp

In the second implementation phase of the PV development strategy for municipal buildings (2008-2012), new criteria will be taken into account for the selection of proposals, such as:

• Energy audits: to which extent PV can provide additional benefits in terms of the buildings energy performance.

• Innovative financing mechanisms, for example, private investors that would finance and manage PV systems installed on public buildings.

• Intelligent electricity consumption, Demand Side Management within the buildings, etc.

PV in Casal de Gent Gran Navas (social centre for elderly people)

PV Pergola "Forum of Cultures 2004"


Economic measures All PV installations can benefit from the Spanish feed-in-tariffs [3] which in 2007 were 44.0381 c€/kWh for installations up to 100 kW, and 41.75 c€/kWh for bigger installations (up to 10 MW). Besides these incentives, the Institute of Urban Landscape and Quality of Life (Institut Municipal del Paisatge Urbá) provides subsidies of up to 25% of the installation costs for private buildings. The Solar Photovoltaic Ordinance of Barcelona Since 2006, all new buildings and renovated buildings over 1000 m2 in Spain must comply with a new regulation, called the “Technical Building Code” [4], the aim of which is to improve safety and habitability by means of a rational use of energy (energy demand limits), improvements of thermal and lighting systems efficiency and the use of active solar technologies (solar thermal and photovoltaics). PV technology is compulsory in the following types of buildings if they are over the minimum application limit:

• Commercial buildings: large supermarkets, 5,000 m2 surface; multi-stores, 3,000 m2 surface; big stores: 10,000 m2 surface.

• Show grounds (for trade fairs): 10.000 m2.

• Office buildings: 4,000 m2 surface.

• Hotels and guesthouses: 100 beds.

• Hospitals and clinics: 100 beds. Within the European Project “Comprehensive Energy Planning in European Cities” (CEPEC), the Barcelona Energy Agency and Barcelona Regional carried out in 2003-04 a study to promote PV in buildings, with the aim of complementing the requirements stated by the Technical Building Code. First of all a detailed assessment of building integration possibilities and the legal framework for PV in Spain was conducted, from which it was concluded that PV installations in the range of 40-120 kW achieved minimum profitability conditions (amongst others, Internal Rate of Return higher than the market interest rate and pay-back time of investments shorter than the PV systems lifetime). After a series of meetings and contacts with the key stakeholders of the PV and building sectors (complemented with several studies on legal and administrative issues in order to identify the right framework), a Solar PV Ordinance for the Municipality of Barcelona has been developed, with the aim of increasing PV penetration in the urban scale. It has specific energy targets for the following building types:

• Commercial and tertiary (services) buildings (new or renovated) with a minimum roof surface of 3,500 m2: the objective is to produce 10% of electricity consumption with PV.

• Office buildings (new or renovated) with a minimum surface of 1,500 m2: the objective is to produce 12% of electricity consumption with PV.

In all cases a minimum PV power installed per m2 of constructed surface must be complied with, namely 7 Wp/m2. Special emphasis will be placed on architectural integration, quality of the projects and simplification of the administrative procedures necessary for compliance with the Ordinance and other legal requirements.


It is expected that the Solar Photovoltaic Ordinance will come into effect in 2008. Wide acceptance between municipal, economic, industrial and social stakeholders has been guaranteed through permanent consultations and discussions with the “Solar Board”, created in 2003 after the initiative of the Barcelona City Council to debate and revise the existing Solar Thermal Ordinance. This Board is a public-private partnership with representatives of the local government (Barcelona Energy Agency, Barcelona City Council), regional government (Directorate General for Energy and Mining of Autonomous Government Generalitat de Catalunya), several public companies (Municipal Housing Council, Institute of Urban Landscape and Quality of Life, Catalan Energy Institute), Association of Developers and Construction companies of Barcelona, several professional associations (architects, engineers, installers, renewable energies industry, buildings administrators), power utilities and the Organisation of Consumers and Users representing citizens.

Summary of problems, barriers, solutions and recommendations Lack of information and acceptance of BIPV solutions At the beginning of the PV development strategy for public buildings (2003), PV technology was unknown by the majority of the staff in the municipal districts’ Technical Services, and some prejudice against this technology could be also noticed amongst architects. For example, PV pergolas with a minimum tilt angle of 5º (recommended for the PV modules to be cleaned by rain water) were not accepted for aesthetical reasons. Solution and recommendation: Close collaboration between the districts’ Technical Services and the Barcelona Energy Agency was found to be essential for the success of the strategy. Besides regular meetings, visits to PV installations were held, so that the district’s Technical Services could see for themselves the aesthetics of PV modules in different integration solutions (for the example mentioned above, no substantial difference exists between horizontal and 5º tilted surfaces). Not all districts were equally enthusiastic about PV at the beginning, but the positive attitude shown by some of them proved to be very motivating for others. A positive result of this collaboration is the fact that, nowadays, for many public buildings (new and renovated) the districts’ Technical Services are already designing structures that can easily

The CEPEC project is a European Commission funded project under the ALTENER initiative (reference ALTENER Z/02-072/2002) that aims at launching and following up Local Energy Plans in the cities of Barcelona, Berlin and Malmö. Local Energy Plans have been identified as strong decision making tools which permit creation of comprehensive energy policies on local level. As part of the CEPEC project, the following actions have been carried out:

• Development of a PV ordinance in Barcelona and evaluation of the measure in other cities

• Development of Building Energy Codes for Barcelona and Malmö • Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) • Monitoring Barcelona’s Plan for Energy Improvement and its Action Plan to

evaluate the level of successfulness and check the effects of the Local Energy Plan policy

• Dissemination of results, in order to communicate the project results to a wide variety of stakeholdes, as well as to exchange the European experiences and reinforce the knowledge transfer between the cities.


integrate PV modules in the future. PV technology is also being considered for buildings that will be the object of Municipal Plans in the 2008-2012 period. Technical Assistance by the Barcelona Energy Agency experts is also being continued. Disseminating existing information about BIPV solutions was also very important in increasing acceptance of PV technology. In Barcelona a growing interest has been experienced amongst architects from the public and private sectors since the first PV projects were developed, as this professional group has become increasingly aware of integration solutions being used worldwide. Maintenance of the PV systems in public buildings Maintenance of energy installations in public buildings is done by the General Services departments at the district level. The existing work load of these services, together with the special characteristics of PV installations compared to conventional electrical ones (they are noiseless and feed electricity to the grid independently from the building’s electrical installation, so that malfunctions are not always easily identified) has not yet allowed creating a successful model for maintenance. Solution and recommendation: For Solar Thermal Systems (a more developed market than PV in Barcelona), the Barcelona City Council is nowadays working to introduce Energy Services Companies for management and maintenance activities. These companies, which could be of public-private ownership, could also provide other services such as project finance, energy consultancy and the development of guidelines and regulations leading to a sustainable market of renewable energy projects, including Photovoltaics. Sources of further information Barcelona Energy Agency: www.barcelonaenergia.cat/homeeng.htm Barcelona City Council: www.bcn.es/english/ihome.htm BCN Solar Channel: www.barcelonaenergia.cat/canalsolar

Public presentation of a PV installation in a municipal building


References [1] “Pla de Millora Energètica de Barcelona” (Plan for Energy Improvement). Ed. Ajuntament de Barcelona – Agència d’Energia de Barcelona, 2002. Also in: http:// www.barcelonaenergia.cat

[2] Canal Solar Barcelona, in: http://www.canalsolar.com

[3] Real Decreto 661/2007 por el que se regula la actividad de producción de energía eléctrica en régimen especial (Royal Decree 661/2007 that regulates electricity production within the Special Regime).

[4] Real Decreto 314/2006 por el que se aprueba el Código Técnico de la Edificación (Royal Decree 314/2006 that approves the Technical Building Code).

Photo credits: Photographs 1, 2, 3 and 5 © Barcelona Energy Agency Photograph 4 © Isofoton S.A.

Case Study prepared by: Estefanía Caamaño-Martín Technical University of Madrid (Instituto de Energía Solar) e-mail: [email protected]

Information and comments provided by: Cristina Castells, Josep Vela and Miguel Miguel Agència d’Energia de Barcelona

Documents

Strategies for the development of PV in Barcelona · and the Barcelona Energy Agency was found to be essential for the success of the strategy. Besides regular meetings, visits to