Barcelona's district heating and cooling network is closer to completing its third plant. With the start of the tunneling machine's work, which will open the way for the underground plant, what will be Districlima's third piece reaches the halfway point of its construction. The forecast is that it will finally be operational in 2026, when it will join a network that now supplies 192 buildings. With the third plant, located in the Bogatell area, it will reach 262, a 33% increase.
The works, which began last year, have already completed stages such as the construction of the water intake well and the screens and anchors. The plant, with a budget of 44.4 million euros in public-private investment, will be buried and will generate cold by taking advantage of seawater, to then distribute it.
The network, promoted with Engie, Tersa and Idae, from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, currently avoids the emission of some 30,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year with its two already operational plants, located in the Fòrum and on Tànger street. With the new plant, it is estimated that more than 339,700 tons of CO2 can be saved by 2032.
Thus, this pioneering heating and cooling network allows progress towards a more sustainable Barcelona and towards energy self-sufficiency. In addition, the work has allowed the recovery of high-quality sand from the ground, a total of 8,000 cubic meters that have been deposited on the beaches of Llevant and Mar Bella, two of the areas most affected by maritime storms in the city.
"Districlima is a public-private initiative that allows us to advance in decarbonization," defended the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, during a visit to the works alongside the executive vice president of Engie Local Energy Infrastructures, Frank Lacroix; the company's director in Spain, Janis Rey, and the director of Districlima, Xavier Puyal.
Lacroix, who has expressed openness to investing in projects in other cities at a national level, defended that Districlima is fundamental for the transformation of Barcelona, and for "positioning it at the forefront of the energy transition," as a "leading city in urban innovation and sustainability."