Iberdrola España and Niño Jesús school promote a pioneering solar community in Burgos

• The new installation, the ninth to be marketed in Castilla y León, will be placed on the roof of the school and will prevent the emission of more than 865 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere over the next 30 years.
• In addition to reducing the school's electricity bill, residents within a radius of 2 kilometres will benefit from the advantages of renewable self-consumption, without the need for their own infrastructure or investment.
• This initiative reflects both entities’ commitment to sustainability and the energy transition.

Iberdrola España and the Niño Jesús school (Educere Foundation) have joined forces to promote a pioneering solar community in the capital of Burgos in their commitment to sustainability and energy transition.

The new installation, Iberdrola España's second in the province and the ninth in Castilla y León, will be on the roof of the Burgos school and will prevent the emission of more than 865 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere over the next 30 years.

In addition to reducing the school's electricity bill, residents within a radius of 2 kilometres will benefit from the advantages of renewable self-consumption, without the need for their own infrastructure or investment.

This form of community self-consumption allows users to share the 100% renewable energy generated from a single photovoltaic installation located in the vicinity of their home, in this case on the school’s roof.

Iberdrola España is investing in this installation, which will consist of 250 solar panels and whose total power will exceed 115 kilowatts (kW), enough to produce around 160 megawatt hours (MWh) annually.

Around 225 families will be able to participate in this solar community and save on their electricity bills by consuming part of the energy produced by this installation locally. The Niño Jesús school (Educere Foundation), a pioneer in having a renewable installation of these characteristics, will be able to cover up to 40% of its electricity consumption.

As a result of its commitment to self-consumption, Iberdrola España has improved the remuneration of its customers' surpluses and, thanks to innovation in energy products, self-consumers with Iberdrola España plans can price their surpluses over the fixed rate, making it possible to receive a €0 bill.

"This pioneering initiative is a very important milestone that marks Iberdrola España's commitment to innovation in energy solutions, sustainability and commitment to the areas in which we operate by making self-consumption available, in this case, to 225 families in Burgos", says Celiano García, Iberdrola España's Sales Director in Castilla y León.

For his part, the school's principal, Faustino Díez, stressed that "this decision is not only a step forward in terms of environmental responsibility, but also has significant benefits for our educational community. He also pointed out that an installation as important as the one that is going to be carried out expands the students’ knowledge, piques their interest in renewable energies and is in line with the school's commitment to educating environmentally responsible pupils".

Leader in self-consumption

Iberdrola España leads the photovoltaic self-consumption market in Spain, managing 40% of the country's self-consumption customers. As part of its commitment to accelerating the energy transition and developing new products to improve efficiency and energy savings, in 2015 the company became the first company in its sector to integrate self-consumption solutions into its service offering.

The collective self-consumption solutions developed by Iberdrola España have made self-consumption available to any customer, whether they have their own roof or not. Customers in this segment also benefit from the Solar Plan, a competitive electricity tariff during the hours when there is no sun, which is when they need to consume energy from the grid, as during the day they self-supply from their own installation.

Self-consumption solar systems can take 30% off annual bills in the case of condos or apartment buildings, 50% for companies and businesses and up to 70% in single-family homes. There are three types of savings: the energy produced by the installation that the user doesn’t have to buy, compensation for the surplus energy not consumed that is fed into the grid and savings from lower taxes.