Twenty-two households residing in the social housing block located in Borrell Street (Barcelona, Spain) have participated at the first Sun4All information session at the pilot location in Barcelona. The session was held to make the tenants aware of the Sun4All project and its support schemes as well as to introduce the project’s main aspects and purpose. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and to take a look at the solar panels installed on the roof of the building.

The existing photovoltaic installations will allow project participants to benefit from solar energy and see their electricity bills reduced from now on and as long as they live in this building. As soon as the residents of the building signed all agreements, they will be enabled to reduce their electricity bills by up to 15 %, according to first calculations. Given the fact that, until now, many residents of this social housing block, which is managed by the Barcelona City Council, have been unaware of the existing solar panels on the top of their building, Sun4All will provide an entry point and facilitate the residents’ access to ‘renewable energy’.

For almost a year (from October 2022 to June 2023) the building will be part of the project’s pilot plan in Barcelona. Thanks to their participation in the Sun4All project pilot in Barcelona, the residents of the Borrell Street building will have the chance to benefit from…

• two personalized sessions with tailored advice. One to ‘optimize’ energy and water bills and another one focused on how to improve energy consumption habits at home. The aim is to explain, how residents can make the most of the photovoltaic installation on the roof of the building they live in.
• the installation of an energy efficiency kit (within the second assessment).
• three energy workshops.
• a visit to another type of photovoltaic installation to learn more about solar energy production and different support schemes facilitating renewable energy consumption in Barcelona, where the solar energy is not produced on top of the residential building, but still available for shared self-consumption.
• the availability of an easy-to-access messaging channel and supportcontact to be informed about planned upcoming events and to receive advice or immediate help, if needed. Additionally, this channel will be used to inform beneficiaries about hours of sunshine and peak-hours per day, as well as to give recommendations for the carefully timed use of energy-using products, such as the washing machine, for example.

The meeting, held on June 15th 2022, made it possible to speak directly with all potential beneficiaries involved, and to address all the doubts that might have arisen amongst the residents. More specifically, representatives of the Barcelona City Council had the chance to explain that beneficiaries don’t have to switch to another energy supplier to be able to join the Sun4All programme. Residents who already receive another type of bonus, don’t have to be afraid of being excluded from other programmes. During the session, it was explained, who to contact in case of technical problems or, if the solar panels were damaged, for example.

Representatives of the Barcelona City Council were pleased with the outcome of this first informative session. The attendees were grateful for getting the opportunity to be part of the Sun4All project and for being involved in all the process. The great attendance rate is seen very positively and shows that interest in this topic is high. Information posters, direct phone calls and door-to-door visits before the meeting helped a lot to spread the word about the informative session amongst the residents of the building.

Particularly the offer of tailored advice in the form of individual, private consulting sessions at home has attracted great interest from participants. All residents who participated in the informative session, signed up to plan the visit of an energy agent at their homes, who will advise them on how to fully exploit the potential of the photovoltaic panels already installed, and how to reduce their electricity bills.

Once the group session and the individual sessions took place, Sun4All representatives will establish the direct communication channel mentioned above, prepare technical aspects, such as signing GDPR-related documents, as well as the distribution agreement. The project consortium is looking forward to seeing the progress being made in Barcelona and to accompanying the beneficiaries throughout the project period.

For more information on the Sun4All pilot implementation in Barcelona, please visit https://www.energia.barcelona/en/sun4all-project