The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, held a working meeting on Tuesday with the director of the City of Energy Foundation (CIUDEN), Yasodhara López, in which were also the subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, and the head of the Fair Transition Institute in Galicia, Nuria Álvarez, in which they analyzed the projects underway in the areas affected by the closure of the thermal centers of Meirama (Cerceda) and As Pontes.
The delegate and the director of the foundation took advantage of the meeting to highlight the good reception of the Dinamiz-ARTj program, a program of the Institute for the Just Transition (ITJ) managed by the CIUDEN Foundation that had 19,418 spectators in the events organized in Galicia in its first edition, while encouraging to participate in the events programmed in this second edition, which includes more than one hundred performances in the community until March 31, 2025 distributed between the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo.
In particular, more than 85 performances are scheduled in the 15 concellos of the just transition areas of the province of A Coruña (A Capela, As Somozas, As Pontes de García Rodríguez, Cabanas, Carral, Cerceda, Cerdido, Laracha, Mañón, Moeche, Monfero, Ordes, Ortigueira, San Sadurniño and Tordoia) and almost 20 in the 3 concellos of the province of Lugo (Muras, Vilalba and Xermade). The performances will take place in municipal spaces and facilities in each locality and attendance at them is free of charge.
“It is about promoting cultural activity in the areas of fair transition, favoring visits to these municipalities and contributing to the enrichment of their tourism offer in areas of high landscape and environmental value,” said the delegate, who noted that other objectives of the same are to value scenic spaces and patrimonial goods of a mineral-industrial nature and promote the search for local talent among artists in these areas.
Other programs
In addition to Dinamiz-ARTj, CIUDEN promoted in Galicia the creation and implementation of energy communities through TransenerCyL CIUDEN, the community transformation office that it manages. Specifically, it gave support to the 6 energy communities of the Arnuide Mountains (Ourense), constituted in the form of a non-profit limited company and with an expected installed individual power of 5 MW.
Not in the field of research, the CIUDEN Foundation collaborates with Jorge Lorenzo, from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in A Coruña, in a project to reproduce arborescent ferns. The specimens produced are destined to the ‘Fuego Verde’ space in the cultural center La Thermal Cultural in Ponferrada. She is also interested in the collaboration in the cultivation of Culcita macrocarpa, a species that appears in the Galician Catalogue of Threatened Species, in the category of ‘in danger of extinction’ by the elimination of the forest on the bottom of ravines and #riverbanks and the introduction of forest crops.
In addition, the CIUDEN Foundation coordinates the coal mining and industrial tourism project, which comes from obtaining an aid of 682,500 euros from the Recovery Plan of the Experiences of Tourism Spain 2023 program of the Ministry of Industry. The City Council of the Pontes, corresponding to 88,200 euros, is one of the entities that participates in it, in which there are also the deputations of Córdoba, León and Teruel and the company Hunosa. The project seeks to promote and enhance the mineral and industrial heritage associated with coal in the Just Transition Zones so that, from it, innovative and sustainable tourism experiences can emerge.