The delegate of the Government in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz, and the mayor of Navarrete, Marisa Corzana, visited this morning the projects of this municipality that have obtained direct aid from the DUS 5,000 Program, within the framework of the Program of Regeneration and Demographic Challenge of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR), for investments to unique local projects of clean energy in municipalities of demographic challenge.
Arraiz highlighted that the DUS 5,000 programme has been a very successful initiative from the outset. “The Government of Spain has as a priority to promote the energy transition in small municipalities or at risk of depopulation. Above all, having noted the enormous interest that the municipal fabric has shown to join the policies of energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and green urban transformation,” he said.
The delegate also pointed out that in the territorial distribution of funds, the allocation to La Rioja for the DUS 5,000 Program amounted to 11,677,500 euros. Initially, 25 applications were submitted from 19 municipalities in Rioja, later one resigned, with approved grants of 8,580,118 euros for a total investment of projects with a value of 9,164,586 euros. Therefore, it has been possible to cover all the requests coming from La Rioja, leaving as a remnant for other autonomous communities with waiting lists of municipalities.
Specifically, from La Rioja 25 applications for aid, all of which were approved within the budget of the DUS Programme 5,000, 11 of them after the expansion of the budget to 675 million euros in November 2022. One of the municipalities has renounced the aid.
*Attached table with the projects presented in La Rioja*
Investment in Navarrete
In her speech, the delegate has valued the work of the City of Navarrete to attract European funds and promote the green transition in the municipality. “European funds are reaching all parts of the territory, allowing localities like Navarrete to develop sustainable energy actions,” he added.
For her part, the mayor pointed out that the City of Navarrete presented two projects to be included in the grants of the DUS 5,000 Program. In this way, the Consistory of this town has obtained funding for two projects that contribute to the ecological transition and for which it has attracted more than 1,100,000 euros of European funds.
“These projects are committed to clean and efficient energy, with the consequent reduction of the municipal electricity bill and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” he stressed.
The first, which is already in operation, corresponds to the installation of solar panels on the roof of the municipal sports center María Ramírez, with a total investment of 155,436 euros and for which they have obtained 113,135 euros of aid.
This installation covers 80% of the electricity consumption of the school, the nursery and the entire sports area – fronton, sports center, swimming pools and soccer fields – which, according to Corzana, “represents a significant saving for the municipal coffers”.
Subsequently, after the extension of the budget of the DUS 5,000 call, which went in November 2022 from the initial 325 million euros to the 675 million euros in Spain to meet most of the requests that were on the waiting list, the City of Navarrete presented a second project for the reform of the low voltage electrical installation in the outdoor street lighting. The aid granted amounts to 1,053,410 euros to develop the total investment of the project.
The mayor explained that “with this subsidy, the Government of Spain assumes 100% of its cost, since the contract was awarded for a smaller amount”.
This work, which starts in the next few days, has an execution time of 5 months and consists of replacing the current luminaires, exactly 969 lampposts, which are not efficient and which are of mercury or sodium vapor, with others of new LED technology.
DUS program 5,000
The DUS 5,000 programme provides funding for the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) in “demographically challenging” municipalities, i.e., with a population of up to 5,000 inhabitants or in non-urban municipalities, spread over areas of this population size, up to 20,000 inhabitants.
It was originally endowed with 75 million euros, but after the high interest on the part of the municipalities, shortly after the call was opened, in November 2021, its budget increased to 325 million euros. In November 2022, a new and final budget extension of an additional 350 million euros was enabled in order to be able to meet a large proportion of the requests that were on the waiting list. The final allocation of the programme amounts to 675 million euros.
The objective of the DUS 5,000 Program is to give a boost to Sustainable Urban Development, in the municipalities of demographic challenge, through actions that constitute unique clean energy projects such as energy efficiency projects in buildings and public infrastructures, promoting green investments and, in particular, self-consumption, as well as sustainable mobility, facilitating the modal change and ensuring the participation of municipalities in the deployment of the infrastructure to recharge and boost the electric vehicle, including measures to save energy and reduce light pollution through the improvement of public lighting.
The funds are managed directly by the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), an entity under the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The aid has not been granted through a competitive competition procedure, but the files are resolved in order of receipt. The deadline for submitting applications ended on November 7, 2022, after more than a year of validity of the program.