- Sports centres in Catalonia
- Citizens
DESCRIPTION
This project is geared towards the promotion of biomass facilities in the sports field as a sector-based marketing strategy to boost the demand of biomass facilities installation projects and, if possible, the development of heat networks that can supply other equipment or adjacent buildings.
It’s important to take into account that Catalonia is one of Spain’s autonomous communities with the highest number of biomass-fuelled heat networks, currently having more than 200 of either public or private ones (usually the most powerful of them work both ways collaboratively). Furthermore, a lot of these heat networks usually incorporate sports facilities to make their development viable, since such facilities have the highest heat demand.
Currently, there are more than 50 sports facilities supplied by forest biomass, although the amount of sports equipment that could have biomass-fuelling implemented in it is enormous, which is why this has become a strategic project to boost the consumption of biomass in Catalonia at a sectoral level.
To this day, projects promoting the usage of biomass in sports facilities have been done separately between the public and private sectors. However, thanks to the interest that this initiative has generated among both sides, and thanks to their own experience, a big opportunity has now arisen to accelerate the transition and decarbonization of this equipment towards the use of the autochthonous energetic resource that the biomass of our forests represents. At the same time, the valorisation of forest biomass is leading to direct action towards the mitigation of climate change: the sustainable management of the forests and its important contribution to the prevention of fires, since these are the biggest impacts that climate change has in Catalonia in socioeconomic and environmental matters.
ECOSERVEIS' ROLE
Ecoserveis is leading the selection of sports centres that are interested in the project, the development of the promotion and marketing campaign “Sports for Climate Action”, as well as the study of participatory and sustainable financing. Finally, Ecoservies will also take part in the analysis of the current situation and the results obtained during the campaign.
OBJECTIVES
The main purpose of this project is to decarbonize sports centres by promoting biomass facilities as an alternative to fossil fuel boilers, promoting climate action and contributing to the prevention of forest fires. The aim is to encourage transitioning to biomass in sports centres by offering a free technical and economic viability study, and a series of seminars and educational visits with the intention of making the benefits, how they work and the requirements of biomass facilities known.
The main specific objectives are presented below:
- To create an analysis of the current use of biomass for the conditioning of sports centres and its contribution to climate change mitigation.
- To develop a communication and marketing campaign to boost biomass installation projects in sports centres.
- To develop viability studies regarding biomass installation in sports centres taking part in the campaign.
- To develop an expository study of participatory and sustainable financing of the facilities.