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From left to right of the photograph, the vice president of the Provincial Council of Malaga, Natacha Rivas; the director of Agua en Alta of the Suez Group, Ramiro Angulo; the General Manager of the Environment at Cosentino Group, Antonio Urdiales; the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucia; the observer of the United Nations for Climate Change, Jesús Martínez Linares; the researcher of the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences and expert in Paleoclimatology, Concepción Jiménez de Cisneros; and the general manager of Endesa Andalucía y Extremadura, Francisco Arteaga.
As part of the World Climate Summit, a round table discussion entitled "Andalusia, co-involved with the planet" has been held today, showing how this autonomous region is an example to follow in the fight against climate change. The debate took place in the so-called Green Zone of COP25, and during this session chaired by Carmen Crespo, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, the general director of Endesa Andalusia and Extremadura, Francisco Arteaga, showed some of the actions that the company carries out in Andalusia to promote sustainable development in the community.
Arteaga presented the Endesa Forest project that recently enabled 30 corporate volunteers to help with the reforestation of an area devastated by the 2017 fire in Doñana. This initiative is the result of an arrangement between Endesa and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, whereby the Company will reforest 40 hectares of the Doñana Natural Park with native species, representing the absorption of 3,606 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The Endesa Forest has a duration of 40 years and will be carried out in two areas selected with the Junta de Andalucía. The “Arroyo de la Comba” area, where 6 hectares will be reforested and 2,796 cork oak, willow, pyrus bourgaeana and arbutus trees will be planted, and the “Tres Rayas” area that will occupy 34 hectares and will be planted with 15,444 cork oak, wild olive, arbutus and myrtle trees. This project is registered in the National Registry of Absorption Projects in the Spanish Office of Climate Change (MITECO) and also entails Endesa's joining of the Andalusian Emissions Compensation System (SACE) of the Junta de Andalucía.
“Endesa's commitment to the environment does not stop with this project, but goes further, becoming part of the DNA of our company, with the aim of total decarbonisation of the energy mix," said Arteaga talking about Endesa’s investment in renewables in Andalusia. "We are fortunate to live in one of Spain’s best areas for renewable generation due to long hours of sunshine and wind," he said.
Endesa currently manages more than 7,077.8 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this figure, 4,710 MW are from conventional hydraulic generation. The rest, more than 2,367.8 MW, are managed through EGPE and come from wind (1,937.8 MW), solar (337 MW), mini-hydro (79 MW) and other renewable energy sources (14 MW).
Endesa has set itself a target of having 10.2 GW of renewable installed capacity by 2022, with a total investment of about €3.8bn, according to its most recent Strategic Plan.
To achieve this, Endesa is immersed in large-scale projects such as a photovoltaic park in Carmona, Seville. “Los Naranjos” with 50 megawatts of power, will be the company’s largest photovoltaic plant in Andalusia to date. It will produce the equivalent annual consumption of almost 15,000 households, while the “Los Arcos” wind farm under construction in the Malaga municipalities of Almargen, Teba and Campillos, with 34.6 megawatts (MW) of power, will prevent emissions equal to approximately 69,000 tons of CO2 per year.
It is based on this commitment to renewables that Endesa has been awarded its first 100% renewable electricity supply contract in a tender launched by the Ministry of Finance, Industry and Energy of the Junta de Andalucía, for approximately 5,000 supply points for public bodies belonging to Red de Energía (REDEJA), managed by the Andalusian Energy Agency. One of the main innovations in the contract is that, for the first time, the retailer is required to provide sufficient certificates of guarantee of renewable origin to cover all electricity demand of the Junta de Andalucía, estimated at around 950 GWh (gigawatt hours), the equivalent to the annual consumption of the cities of Almería and Jaén.
Finally, the general manager of Endesa Andalusia and Extremadura organised a round table discussion on the project "an example of how we want the cities of the future to be, this is #eCitySevilla". This project is a partnership between private companies and public entities to develop a city model in an open, digital, decarbonised and sustainable ecosystem on Isla de la Cartuja by 2025.
"The Isla de la Cartuja in Seville will be a benchmark for sustainability at an international level thanks to an urban energy transition model, achieving the energy and climate objectives set for 2050, twenty-five years ahead of time," said Arteaga. There are already four working groups devoted to the project that will implement the strategies to follow in each area of the project: energy, building, sustainable mobility and digitalisation.
#eCitySevilla expects that by 2025 the Isla de la Cartuja will produce and consume 100% renewable energy based on distributed energy resources and that its buildings will obtain optimal energy certification and that some will be almost-zero-consumption constructions. In addition, in terms of mobility, progress will be made towards pedestrianisation models and the promotion of decarbonised or shared vehicles and a smart management platform for all resources and services will be implemented, based on open data schemes, sensorisation and digital transfer models and distributed management.