Andy Bäcker: Sestao as an Example of Concrete Actions in Circular Economy

Andy Bäcker presented Sestao’s urban regeneration project through the European + CityxChange program to create smart cities. With this, the European Union has proposed that by 2025 there will be 100 districts that produce more energy than they consume. In the program, the Basque city is the only Spanish representative.

In Sestao they have proposed that already in 2023 a series of buildings in the city produce more energy than they consume. And, for this, they have launched a project called Red de Calor . With this project, this series of buildings will be heated with two biomass boilers and a third auxiliary gas boiler. Some of them, those already connected, have gone from a very poor energy rating to a maximum.

The intention of the Biscayan municipality is to increase the number of buildings connected to this heat network and with other renewable sources, such as photovoltaic panels, take advantage of the residual heat from the AcelorMittal steel plant, or thermal solar panels with which the heat of the summer to take advantage of it during the cold months.

Other options contemplated in Sestao are the creation of solar gardens to take advantage of the electricity they produce to power the buildings that are entering the project. In addition, the use of vegetation allows the decontamination of the soil.

Within the European project, other objectives are pursued, apart from energy efficiency, such as involving citizens, sensorization or monitoring of water, energy or air quality consumption, sustainable mobility, or the installation of chargers. electric vehicles.

Finally, in Sestao , commitments have been signed such as: carbon neutrality by 2050, strategies to make the city more sustainable, the Covenant of Mayors to reduce CO 2 by 2030, or the Urban Agenda, now in the process of being drawn up, and the creation of energy communities for self-consumption.

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