More than 100,000 households can access self-consumption through Iberdrola España's solar communities
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This technology allows access to self-consumption without the need to invest or install panels on your property
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Three million families and businesses fall within the scope of the ongoing solar communities
Iberdrola España, in its goal of driving the energy transition towards an emission-free economy, facilitates access to self-consumption for more than 100,000 households through solar communities. As part of its commitment to the development of new products that improve energy efficiency and savings, in 2015 the company became the first company in its sector to integrate self-consumption solutions into its service offering.
In Spain, more than two thirds of the population lives in high-rises. So all people can benefit from this technology, Iberdrola España launched its solar communities in 2019, through which any neighbour located within 2 km of an installation can access 100% renewable energy. Today, there are more than three million families and businesses that fall within the scope of one of the company's solar communities.
After analysing the installations that have been in operation for more than a year, the average electricity consumption of the families that have joined the solar communities is 3.2 MWh per year, and they have achieved more than 25% savings in their consumption without having made any payments or installation to switch to self-consumption. In addition, each family reduces 5 tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the installation.
Those users who decide to participate in an Iberdrola España solar community are guaranteed that with that decision they will start saving on their bills.
These results confirm Iberdrola España's commitment to bringing self-consumption to high-rise housing through a subscription model, in a simple and digital way that allows families and companies to consume local and sustainable energy without the need for investment or installation on their properties.
As with solar panels installed on their property, users of solar communities can offset their surpluses, feeding their surplus energy into the grid and receiving remuneration for it, or offsetting it on subsequent bills or at other residences through Iberdrola España's Solar Cloud service.
Strategy for the future
Iberdrola España already has several solar cities, where all inhabitants can join a solar community and have access to self-consumption. Examples of this initiative are Cáceres and Huesca. The company's objective is to continue to promote this technology and cover the greatest number of locations under this initiative. With the installations underway, there are already more than three million families and companies that fall within the scope of a solar community.
Iberdrola España's solar communities include turnkey installations and the possibility of installing the solar panels without prior investment, ceding the roof space to the company and facilitating access to the green energy generated to people living within a radius of 2 kilometres.
The installation of a self-consumption solar system can lead to annual bill savings of 25% in the case of residents' associations, 50% for companies and businesses and up to 70% in single-family homes. These savings are made in three ways: the energy produced by the installation that the user does not have to buy, compensation for the surplus energy not consumed that is fed onto the grid and savings due to lower taxes.