21 May 2024
- In addition to learning about the research projects of Orkestra's Energy and Environment Lab, the members of the delegation were able to meet with representatives of EVE, Petronor and Iberdrola.
- The aim of the visit was to understand how renewable energies are being developed in the Basque Country.
A delegation from the Environment Committee of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations visited Orkestra last week to meet with the Energy Lab team, after reading the report Social acceptance of local renewable energy projects recently published by the institute.
The aim of the visit was to understand how renewable energies are being developed in the Basque Country, to learn more about the role of energy communities and other innovative ways of organising energy activities, and to gain insights on how the acceptance of new renewable energy developments is being fostered. To this end, several meetings were organised with some of the main agents and companies in the energy sector in the Basque Country.
The first of these meetings took place on 15th May at the Basque Energy Agency (EVE). The Japanese delegation was able to learn about their main strategies and actions to promote renewable energies in the Basque Country. Guillermo Basáñez and Natalia Díaz de Arcaya also introduced them to Ekiola, an initiative of citizen cooperatives promoted by EVE and Krean for the generation of renewable energy. 
The second meeting allowed the visitors to learn about Iberdrola's Convive Programme, which aims to share the economic, social and environmental benefits of the renewable energy projects promoted by Iberdrola with the socio-economic environment. Unai Alaña explained the three main axes of this initiative: socioeconomic development, protection and improvement of biodiversity, and alliances and collaboration with stakeholders.
On 16th May, a meeting was held with Petronor at the recently launched Energy Intelligence Center. Pilar Urruticoechea, Javier Zuazola and Ander Lucas presented the new business models related to energy communities, solar communities and self-consumption that the Repsol group is deploying in the Basque Country and Spain.
Finally, the delegation visited the University of Deusto, where Orkestra's Energy and Environment Lab team gave a presentation on the institute's research agreements and reviewed some of the research projects carried out in recent years in the field of energy. In addition, Jorge Fernández and Stephania Mosquera delved into the conclusions of the report on the social acceptance of local renewable energy projects that led to the association's interest in visiting the Basque Country.
