“The idea to set up a One-Stop Shop came from civil society activists who asked the city council to act.”

Valencia is one of Spain’s largest cities with a population of more than 800,000 inhabitants. Inefficient homes and energy poverty, affecting currently one out of five households, are among the city’s biggest challenges. In 2019, Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation created three physical and one mobile municipal energy offices. Their first objective was to fight citizens‘ ‚energy illiteracy‘ and to educate them on some energy basics, such as understanding energy bills. Today, the ambition is to offer them integrated home energy renovation services. The idea to develop a local One-Stop Shop for home energy renovation came from civil society activists who asked the city council to act.

Corentin Girard, Energy Area Coordinator in Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation told us how the city council and he personally have been dealing with such a complex task.

Can you introduce yourself? 

I’m Corentin Girard. Since 2016, I have been working as Energy Area Coordinator for Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation of Valencia City Council. I was in charge of designing and opening the first three municipal energy offices in Valencia and I am supervising the One-Stop Shop (OSS) service. My background is in environmental engineering and I have experience in consulting for NGOs, public entities and academia.

What is the city of Valencia doing to facilitate home energy renovations? 

Valencia, Spain, is geographically located on the Mediterranean coast and it is one of Spain’s largest cities. The city has a population of more than 800,000 inhabitants, with the metropolitan area exceeding 1.6 million inhabitants. Our local objective is to become climate neutral by 2030 while reducing energy poverty affecting currently one out of five households in the city.

In 2019, Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation created  three physical and one mobile municipal energy offices to promote sustainable energy policies and to assist citizens with their energy renovation projects and the set-up of energy communities. Our goal is to convert the existing information and training service into a fully operating integrated home renovation service. We also provide discount on local taxes for PV installation, review urban planning documents to facilitate renovation projects, organise information and awareness raising campaigns and support project owners in submitting grant applications. 

The city council supported and financed the OSS since its beginning, with continuous political commitment independently of local changes. When it comes to the communication with homeowners, the involvement of the city council gives the OSS a clear advantage in terms of credibility and trust. We promote public, independent and free energy advisory services. The users acknowledge it, they know we are not selling anything. This privileged relation with the city council also facilitates procedures related to permits and licensing and other administrative procedures.

Can you briefly present your One-Stop Shop?

For now, our OSS is structured around five working areas: Energy Bills, Right to Energy, Cultural Transition, Savings and Renovation, Renewable Energy. The OSS is financed 100% by the city council through the Valencia Climate and Energy Foundation. We have some extra budget from EU or national projects. The service is currently partially externalized through a service contract with a private company. The core team is made of 13 FTE working in the office (engineers, architects, social workers, education professionals) and 4 FTE working from the Foundation on the coordination and support activities.

One-Stop Shop creation is a long journey, can you tell us how it went? 

In our local Spanish context, where the complexity and opacity of the energy sector was frightening and energy poverty rising, the energy centres were created to fight “energy illiteracy“. Citizens hardly understood their energy bills and fake news were widely spreading. For example, the information that PV installations where prohibited and dangerous, what was known as the „solar fobia“. Back in time, the energy renovation was not yet on the political agenda.

The idea to set up a OSS came first from civil society activists who asked the city council to act.  After that, politicians, the city council‘s technical staff and the Foundation took over and initiated the whole process. Taking the decision to open a OSS was relatively simple, securing the funding and the premises took us two years and three different councillors. But all of them supported the project and did their best to overcome administrative barriers. Thanks to the support of the European Save the Home project, we developed the first part of the integrated home renovation service that we are now trying to upscale… 

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