Eight months ago, all the groups with municipal representation agreed on the need to study a new rule that allows the residents of the Old Town to install solar panels on the roofs of their buildings. The initiative came from the socialist councilor Pedro Miranda and was supported by all the councillors.
The mayor of the PSOE then explained that the residents of this area of the city cannot benefit from the advantage of green energy because there is a Special Plan that prevents placing this type of structure on the roofs of buildings to avoid modifying the physiognomy of the area of the city in which the buildings with the greatest historical and heritage value are concentrated.
“When the neighbors request authorization, the technicians tell them that it is not possible to create these facilities, but the reason is not explained to them,” Miranda denounced, “but the use of photovoltaic and thermal renewable energy has many more advantages than disadvantages.”
Ana Souto, current president of the community of owners of the building that occupies number 37 Sansisenando street, agrees with this idea. “We are eight neighbors and as a community we are interested in taking advantage of the subsidies that have been called to promote photovoltaic energy. It would be good for us to generate the electricity that we use in the stairwell and in the common areas, even in private homes, but they tell us that the municipal ordinance does not allow it.
“The orientation of our roof is perfect, one part faces south and has the correct slope. It would not have a visual impact and it would only be seen from buildings taller than ours because we do not face the street,” adds this neighbor.
Paralyzed projects
The desire to bet on green energy exists. Ana Souto is just one of the neighbors who considers it interesting to place plates on the roofs of her building, but this desire collides with the urban planning regulations that govern the Old Town, a special protection area in which the roofs must be curved tile. .
“It would be easy to make an ordinance that protects the visual aspect of the city from the highest buildings but at the same time facilitates the use of photovoltaic and thermal solar energy in the Old Town,” Miranda defends.
Erika Cadenas, the spokeswoman for United We Can in the City Council, agrees with this idea. “If we want people to want to come and live in the Old Town, we have to make it friendlier and more attractive, it must have the same advantages as other neighborhoods,” she said in the plenary session where the problem was analyzed.
Cadenas also expressed the need for the voice of groups related to the defense of heritage and the environment to be heard when studying this matter.
Alejandro Vélez, who is an independent councilor, gave his approval to this idea and Jesús Coslado did the same on behalf of the PP, but Carlos Urueña admits that this desire collides with the regulations in force. «The use of materials, especially in areas where views must be protected, must be analogous to the existing ones. On sloping roofs, it must have a curved tile, so plates cannot be placed.
With that conviction, the Town Planning councilor promised to study the matter, but when the socialist councilor Luis Tirado asked how that study was going in the January plenary session, the mayor of the city, Ignacio Gragera, only replied that “it is in process” .
Pending the Consortium
Carlos Urueña confirms to HOY that the City Council’s will is to “create a regulation on this matter” but postpones the study until the Old Town Consortium is launched, a new institution that is pending the approval of the statutes .
Meanwhile, the residents fear that the delay in the approval of the ordinance will deprive them of access to subsidies that would allow them to save more than half of the investment.
www.hoy.es
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.