The standard, the same as Efidistrict Chantrea, would allow getting grants similar to the ones given to preferential rehabilitation areas.
Government of Navarra and Pamplona City Council has established, by signing an agreement this morning, a model for energy rehabilitation of neighborhoods in the city, that would follow the guidelines of Efidistrict Chantrea project and will soon begin its informative phase in La Milagrosa district . To do this, both departments from the Navarra Government, on one hand Finance, Industry and Employment and on the other hand Development, as well as the public company Nasuvinsa and the City Council will collaborate together.
The purpose of the agreement is the creation of an appropriate framework for intervention, leaning on the maximum collaboration among public administrations, to promote the implementation energy regeneration processes at neighborhood level (houses and public buildings) promoting the use of renewable energy and improving efficiency. Thus, the administration goes from being mere payer of subsidies facilitator of these processes that pursue merely less dependence on fossil fuels, increased cost savings and improved thermal comfort in homes; also encouraging the active involvement of the neighbors who are the ones who ultimately decide to bet on them.
The intervention model set out in the agreement includes, more specifically, improvement in three phases, as is being developed in the Chantrea Efidistrict project, which began in March last year. These three axes are the creation of a new thermal network (district heating) fed with biomass to supply all residents, renovation of the old district heating systems and integral energy refurbishment of buildings, including their thermal envelopes.
Energy rehabilitation agreement
With regard to the commitments assumed by the Government of Navarra, the agreement provides that the areas under these regeneration goals are eligible for analogous grants to those areas of preferential Rehabilitation, increasing significantly the subsidies regarding general grants. Similarly, the increase in the maximum grant for thermal envelope is also contemplated and contributes to the financing of previous studies to determine the energy characteristics of neighborhoods.
For its part, the City of Pamplona will process precise planning instruments to facilitate the implementation of district heating systems and develop urban projects aiming to improve infrastructure networks and urban space and equipment, among others.
Similarly, coordination between the Government of Navarra and the Pamplona City Council allowed claiming jointly grants to the European Union, which includes among its priority objectives such rehabilitation.
Characteristics of the district heating systems in Chantrea and Milagrosa
Milagrosa, and Chantrea districts have in common social housing constructions patterns from the 50’s and the 80’s, prior to the current requirement to include thermal insulation in homes and also, there are buildings in those districts that have common aesthetic composition that requires integral and harmonious interventions.
Also, one of the most significant aspects of these areas of Pamplona is the existence of a number of district heating systems to which many of the homes built in the decades of the 50, 60 and 70 are connected. These facilities are today in many cases at the end of their useful life, with widespread problems affecting the production of heat and its own distribution network.
In addition, these heaters should face the difficulty of adopting regulatory and individual control measures for homes, detached requirement of the European Directive 2012/27 / EU, that must take effect in Spain in January 2017. In many cases, giving the original design of the facility, including these control measures will involve the need to correct the distribution networks that run through public space.
Carry out global actions on this type of energy infrastructure often exceeds the management capacity of individuals, as is heating services that can bring together from 200 to more than 1,200 homes, with the complexity of the adoption of resolutions and possible programming works.
This is causing the decentralization of some of these district heating systems, which endanger the opportunity to show that these facilities, with appropriate regulatory measures, are extremely competitive and efficient, making easy to incorporate renewable energies and must be progressively widespread and incorporated in both the city already built and future new developments, adopting a widespread model in northern and central Europe for heating and cooling.
A year since the opening of the office Efidistrict Chantrea
Efidistrict project was presented in March 2014 and opened an office to attend public demands and queries. Attended by technical staff Nasuvinsa, it has so far received a total of 319 visits. Also, they have organized meetings with neighbors with the presence of 395 households. From these visits, they have closed a total of 8 deals with portals, which bring together a total of 160 homes, to undertake reforms.
Regarding the planned schedule, this summer will begin to be awarded the first building permits for housing reforms, thermal envelope in the first instance, located in the towers Orvina III. During the months of April and May, almost simultaneously, they will begin briefings for housing towers Orvina II and I, as well as the traditional low houses in the neighborhood of Chantrea.
Furthermore, in December 2014 an agreement was reached with Caja Rural to guarantee access to funding for communities of owners to undertake the works advantageously without personal guarantees and covering the total value of the investment, up to 12 years without cancellation fees or redemption.
