The presentation of the TANDEM project at the beginning of November brings together residents of Pujalt, Astor and Guàrdia Pilosa and allows the conversation to be opened about the suitability of how wind energy is being implemented in the Anoia region.
With the aim of studying the different effects of energy transition policies on segments of society, the TANDEM project was presented in Pujalt on November 3. An initiative financed with funds from the European Horizon 2020 program that seeks to listen to citizens about the effects that the implementation of renewables can have on the groups directly affected and, finally, to develop a guide of recommendations.
The information session, organized together with the Pujalt Town Council in El Cobert, brought together around fifteen people from neighboring towns. But it also took place in a particularly significant territorial location, since the municipality (with just over two hundred inhabitants) has three major wind projects and has seen more than fifty wind turbines installed there in the last 15 years.
Study analysis and final phase
Despite the scale of the wind projects, the citizens of the area have never been summoned to find out what they think about the implementation. For this reason, and after this first session, three discussion groups organized by the Catalan entity responsible for the project, the Ecoserveis Association, will be held from 2024. Participatory sessions that aim to have the collaboration of the different affected groups, as well as local citizens. The objective is to involve citizens, collect opinions and develop a guide of recommendations that will make European energy transition policies take into account the citizen impacts and incorporate, over time, the concerns of those who live closest to the implementation of renewables.
This is the final process of a project that has been analyzing for months the different energy transition policies that have been implemented in the territory and how they have affected the groups involved. In this sense, it should be noted that the previous analysis of public policies and the expansion of wind and solar energy has been carried out through interviews with those responsible for these policies, as well as with representatives of the groups and collectives that have been affected by the implementation of wind and photovoltaic energy.
Citizen participation
The citizens of Pujalt and the entire group of municipalities in the Alta Anoia and Segarra area will be able to benefit from participating in the discussion groups that will be created in the municipality, contributing their vision and experience and thus becoming the center of the debate. All this to analyze what renewable energy implementation policies should be in the coming years. In this way, together with those responsible for the project, members of the local community and representatives of the different affected sectors will be able to request that these policies take care of the territory and take into consideration all the negative effects that they can cause in the rural world, especially in its citizens.
Furthermore, the participation of local citizens in the participatory sessions will be rewarded for the time and efforts dedicated to the project.
The Ecoserveis Association, a member of the TANDEM project and responsible for the Catalan case study, calls on the citizens of the area to take an interest in the project and to participate massively in the discussion groups. Ecoserveis is a non-profit association dedicated to the energy transition from a fair and egalitarian perspective, considering the territory and all the people who are part of it.
For more information, you can consult the websites about the entity and the TANDEM project.
To participate in the citizen discussion groups (the first of which will take place on January 20, 2024) you can register here .
