Award winners of the European Solar Prize 2016 honored in Barcelona
EUROSOLAR e.V. together with EUROSOLAR Spain and Barcelona City Council awarded nine nominees, in seven categories, from eight different countries with the European Solar Prize 2016.
This year’s Solar Prize was given to nine award winners, in seven categories, from eight different countries. Together with the Spanish Section of EUROSOLAR and Barcelona City Council, EUROSOLAR e.V. presented the winning projects to 140 participants.
EUROSOLAR president Professor Peter Droege declared in his welcome speech: “These brilliant initiatives and their authors augur a new age with powerful messages for Europe. Renewables represent the essential infrastructure for peaceful coexistence, social justice and prosperity, helping to stem global climate refugee streams, and to avoid the worst of global warming.”
Local actors are supported by the City of Barcelona with a wide-ranging strategy to achieve energy sovereignty and to put it into the hands of the people. “The commitment made by the City Council consists of recovering the idea of public service associated with energy and democratizing it. A new model that mainly uses renewable energy sources produced and distributed locally, ‘zero miles’ energy, making energy sovereignty possible and incorporating citizen participation into the process” explained Janet Sanz, Deputy Mayor for Ecology, Urban Planning and Mobility of Barcelona City Council, to the audience.
In addition to the award ceremony, international energy experts debated on the European energy policy and presented strategies for supporting Renewable Energy and Energy Democracy on national, regional and local scale. They concluded, that a common European political framework has to focus on individual needs and to allow its member states to choose their own market rules for the implementation and trade of Renewables. Furthermore outdated conventional structures and the gigantic subsidies for fossil and nuclear energy have to be overcome to realize a sustainable ‘Renewable Energy Union’.
Since 1994 EUROSOLAR has recognized outstanding commitment in the field of Renewable Energy with the annual European Solar Prize. Ground-breaking projects and initiatives from all sectors of society are selected with the purpose of making pioneers and innovators the focus of public awareness and of giving fresh impetus to an energy turnaround that is decentralized and based on Renewables.
Winners of the European Solar Prize 2016:
Towns, municipalities, council districts, public utilities
Energy self-sufficient community of Kisielice, Poland Outstanding commitment and role model of a renewable development in Poland on local scale. CITY OF KISIELICE
Solar architecture and urban planning
Renovation Johann Böhm, Austria Innovative and transferable concept of transforming an apartment building from the sixties into a plus-energy-building. NUSSMÜLLER ARCHITEKTEN ZT GMBH
Medal: Renovation Anliker, Switzerland Innovative and highly efficient concept for a sustainable refurbishment of a heritage-protected building. CHRISTIAN & ELISABETH ANLIKER / CLEVERGIE GMBH
Industrial and commercial companies or farmers
Bodegas Torres, Spain Overall concept for the sustainable use of energy and other natural resources in the fabrication of wine. MIGUEL TORRES, S.A.
Interfloat Corporation, Principality of Liechtenstein Best-practice example of an economic transformation in a declining coal region by fulfilling a corporate structural change with employing hundreds of skilled workers. INTERFLOAT CORPERATION
Local or regional associations /organizations
Repowering London, United Kingdom Establishment of a grassroots organized community-power development in London’s Brixton neighborhood. REPOWERING
Owners and operators of renewable energy installations
Zusamme Solar! Colmar, Germany / France Role model and inspiration for common European renewable energy projects across national borders and juridical frontiers. FESA ENERGIE GENO / ENERGIES PARTAGEES
Transport and Mobility
Weisse Arena Gruppe, Switzerland On the way to the world’s first self-sufficient winter sports resort with a PV-powered ski lift, diesel-electric snow groomers and heat recovery units. WEISSE ARENA AG
One World Cooperation
nph deutschland e.V., Germany Implementation of a solar smart grid to cover the energy demands of 15 humanitarian programs in Haiti. NPH DEUTSCHLAND E.V. / BIOHAUS-STIFTUNG
