Zaragoza will have new resources to advance the city’s energy transformation. The City Council has secured €1,383,222.50 in funding from the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE), sourced from various programs linked to the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, as well as the European NextGenerationEU and REPowerEU funds.
The public funding will enable a total investment of over €2.9 million and will be allocated across three areas: promoting energy communities, modernizing facilities in municipal buildings, and developing a renewable heating network around the Polideportivo Siglo XXI.
Beyond the numbers, these projects illustrate different approaches to urban decarbonization. Some initiatives aim to directly reduce energy consumption in public buildings; others seek to replace systems powered by natural gas with renewable technologies, while part of the funds will go towards enabling citizens and businesses to participate in energy communities.
An Office to Promote Energy Communities
The first grant amounts to €249,800 from the CE Office Program. It will facilitate the development of a Community Transformation Office aimed at advising citizens, companies, and organizations interested in creating energy communities.
These models allow different users to collaboratively participate in energy generation and consumption projects, especially through shared self-consumption installations. The office’s goal will be to support these processes by providing technical, legal, and administrative information and advice.
The initiative will pay specific attention to rural neighborhoods in Zaragoza and will also include outreach and training activities. Among its objectives is to encourage citizen participation in the energy transition and promote initiatives related to combating energy poverty.
Over €900,000 for Municipal Buildings
The second block of funding comes from the first call of the Incentives Program for Innovative Renewable Energy and Storage Projects. Zaragoza will receive €665,700 to develop four initiatives that represent a total investment of €907,326.66.
These include the modernization of the thermal facilities at La Azucarera and the renovation of the air conditioning systems at Escuela Infantil La Piraña. Existing equipment will also be replaced with high-efficiency heat pumps in various municipal buildings.
The aim is to simultaneously reduce energy consumption and emissions associated with the daily operation of these facilities. Electrifying thermal systems through heat pumps is indeed one of the methodologies used to progressively reduce dependence on fossil fuels for building heating.
A Renewable Network for 192 Homes
The most substantial investment project is also the most unique. Zaragoza has secured an additional €467,722.50 from the RENORED program to develop NeutralPath, a fifth-generation heating network based on hydrothermal energy and water-to-water heat pumps. The total investment is expected to reach €1,781,800.
The new infrastructure will be installed around the Polideportivo Siglo XXI and will provide heating and hot water to 192 homes, along with Escuela Infantil María Urrea, CEIP José Antonio Labordeta, and the changing rooms of the sports complex’s football field.
This change will enable the replacement of current natural gas boilers with a high-efficiency renewable energy system. Unlike interventions that individually impact each building, a heating network provides a shared infrastructure capable of supplying thermal energy to various properties from a single system.
This initiative is also noteworthy because it brings the energy transition from broad general goals to a specific residential environment. It is not only about enhancing the efficiency of municipal installations: 192 private homes will also be connected to the new renewable infrastructure.
Securing Funds to Transform the City
The three grants total €1.38 million, but the investments that will make them possible will exceed €2.9 million. The ability to secure European and state funding thus becomes a tool to accelerate projects that otherwise would have to be fully financed through municipal resources or developed at a different pace.
The City Council is also exploring other funding avenues. A request submitted to the MOVES III 2025 Program to acquire plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles for the municipal fleet is pending resolution. In this case, the grant has not yet been awarded, so it should not be counted among the €1.38 million already obtained.
Therefore, the announced initiatives combine relatively conventional energy efficiency projects with more innovative initiatives, such as energy communities and the hydrothermal-based heating network. The outcome will allow for interventions in public buildings, homes, and collective models of energy production and consumption.
For Zaragoza, the challenge now will be to turn the secured funds into executed projects and later measure their results. The €1.38 million obtained is only the starting point; the real impact will be known when the investments allow for assessing how much energy consumption and how many emissions the new facilities can reduce.
