mount a solar panel on top
Aragón is one of the autonomous communities of “energy Spain” and its capital is positioning itself as one of the leading European cities in the urban energy transition. Within your strategy “Zaragoza Smart and Climate Neutral City“, the capital of the Ebro has just start the works to increase its photovoltaic park within the city without altering the available space for other infrastructure. As? Installing photovoltaic canopies in four public parking lots. Parking lots converted into solar parks. The facilities are distributed in four locations: the Miguel Servet parking lots (780.64 kWp), Pignatelli (460.53 kWp), Parque de Oriente (963.9 kWp) and the Macanaz discretionary bus parking lot (279.65 kWp), reaching a total installed power of 2,484.72 kWp. In total, there will be 4,176 solar modules to cover 10,816 square meters of canopies and will produce 3,638.5 MWh per year, which is approximately equivalent to the consumption of a thousand average homes. according to city council data. The structures are not simple panel supports, but canopies designed to integrate into current urban aesthetics, so that they offer shade and protection to vehicles. In addition, of the 651 spaces that will be protected under a photovoltaic cover, 40 will incorporate charging points for electric vehicles. Why is it important. As explains the Renewable Foundationthe parking lots – photovoltaic parks are three in one: they provide shade for vehicles, provide “clean” electricity to electric car charging points and also make energy from renewable sources available for self-consumption or supply. The third point is especially interesting: there will be homes close to the parking lots (within a 5 km radius) that will be able to benefit from this energy without having to install panels in their buildings and all that this entails in terms of investment or bureaucracy. Furthermore, consuming energy where it is produced minimizes transportation and distribution losses. At an institutional level, the council will reduce its energy bill and advance its climate neutrality objectives for 2030. Architecturally, the relevance of this project lies in the efficiency of land use, since it uses existing infrastructure that is already sealed by asphalt, which prevents the degradation of natural or agricultural land. Context. The project is part of the European Commission’s mission of “100 Smart and Climate Neutral Cities by 2030” of which Zaragoza is a member, which forces the capital city to accelerate its energy efficiency and sustainable mobility policies. Zaragoza already has successful solar projects under its belt, such as host the first “solar neighborhood”“of the Spanish state. On the other hand, the Spanish regulatory framework (Royal Decree 244/2019) has facilitated the expansion of collective self-consumption through a simplified compensation mechanism for the energy produced and not consumed instantly by small self-consumers, which makes it technically and legally viable that, for example, the solar parking in Macanaz can provide energy to nearby schools or homes. The regulations allow an installation of up to 5 MW with consumption points up to 5 km away, which gives more breadth and flexibility. This legal certainty has allowed Zaragoza to be one of the most ambitious cities in the deployment of urban photovoltaics in Spain. chow they do it. Through a public-private collaboration where the city only provides the land. The project was awarded in January 2025 to Repsolwhich executes it through Solar360, a joint venture of the energy company and Telefónica Spain specialized in photovoltaic self-consumption. The investment is 5.66 million euros and is borne by the company: the City Council does not pay anything for the installation or maintenance. In exchange, Repsol operates the service for 25 years and pays the council a fixed fee of 6,000 euros per year for each of the four parking lots, plus a percentage of the energy generated in kind: 10% in three of the lots and 4% in the fourth. Yes, but. The work requires the felling of about 38 trees in the first two lots, which will be compensated with 55 new 16/18 caliber trees (not a seedling, but not an adult tree either) and a contribution of 23,990 euros. The problem is that they do not replace an adult tree and its functions (shade, water regulation, minimizing the heat island effect), something for which they will need decades. On the other hand, according to the Renewable Foundationthis type of installation is amortized over a period of four to eight years. With a 25-year concession, Repsol will recover its investment in less than a third of the period granted, which raises reasonable questions about whether the fee received by the City Council is proportional to the profit the company obtains. When the project is operational and we know real production data and participating homes, we will know the answer. In Xataka | Aragón already has cheap energy, so now it is going to activate the second part of the plan: attract the industry In Xataka | Zaragoza is so full of data centers that Amazon has decided to take one to… a town in Teruel with 900 inhabitants Cover | Saragossa and Pedro Sanz
