Recent leaflet by the Covenant of Mayors – Europe offers examples of cities and regions alleviating energy poverty. In the Spanish Region of Navarra, citizens’ energy bills have been reduced by €560/year on average.
Thanks to an energy renovation programme targeting residential buildings in deprived neighbourhoods, Navarra Region has reduced households’ energy consumption by 70% compared to 2014 levels.
In the Txantrea disctrict of Pamplona, the renovations consisted in the construction of new thermal envelopes for public and residential buildings constructed between the 50s and the 80s, the renewal of the old district heating systems, and the creation of a new district heating network using biomass.
600 apartments were renovated over the 2014-2017 period, resulting in an average reduction in energy bills of €560/year/household.
Renovations were financed by the European Commission (Mobilising Local Energy Investments – Project Development Assistance) and the Government of Navarra under the Efidistrict project. When the project came to an end in 2018, NASUVINSA, the regional agency responsible for urban development and social housing, got a €40 million loan from the European Investment Bank to build 500 nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) housing units over the next three years.
| More information and examples from EU Covenant of Mayors cities and regions to be found in the leaflet “How to alleviate energy poverty at local level”, available in the Covenant of Mayors online library. |