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Green eMotion, the EU initiative for promoting electromobility, takes off in Spain

The Green eMotion project is to be presented in Barcelona on 25 and 26 January at operational meetings for accelerating market mechanisms that will make possible the introduction of electric cars in Spain.

Green eMotion is a project that was set up by the European Commission nine months ago in which 42 partners are involved, amongst which are some of the country’s leading businesses, city halls that have paved the way in mobility concepts and smart cities, and universities and institutions working in the fields of technology and research. They have all come together to contribute, exchange and develop their knowledge and experiences in the Spanish cities selected for the project.

Madrid, 25 January 2012. – Today, the city of Barcelona hosted the first executive meeting in Spain of the Green eMotion project, promoted by the European Commission to facilitate electromobility in Europe and create a market that will accelerate its deployment. The initiative, in which 42 partners are involved, is to be backed by Spanish companies of the stature of Endesa and Iberdrola, which are to coordinate the project’s pilot activities in Spain. Also taking part are the city halls of Barcelona, Malaga, Ataún and Madrid, as well as the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), the Cidaut Foundation, Tecnalia and the Cartif technology centre for research and development in transport and energy. The eight organisations aim to work together to test and demonstrate the technologies that will encourage the use of electric vehicles in Spain in the wider context of Europe.

The consortium chose Barcelona for the Spanish launch of Green eMotion because it was the second city in Spain, after Malaga, to implement the SmartCity project. The two-day meeting will be held at the headquarters of Barcelona Activa in the city hall of Barcelona, and it is anticipated that a delegation from the project will visit a solar-efficient house on the city’s Passeig Marítim.

The IREC will be specifically responsible for the coordination, data collection and analysis of electromobility in the European regions taking part in the project.

The Green eMotion initiative is an endeavour to respond to the main issue facing electromobility, that is, whether it will be possible to recharge electric vehicles anywhere in Europe.

The GeM project is the framework chosen by the EC to link up the main pilot studies that are currently taking place in Europe. In the case of Spain, the GeM takes in the principal government initiatives and experiences to have been launched, such as the Plan Movele; buildings, such as the LIVE office in Barcelona; the SmartCity projects in Malaga and Barcelona; and car sharing schemes in Madrid and Ataún (Basque Country). The ultimate aim of these projects is to create a common market that will offer the users of electric vehicles total mobility, so that they will be able to drive freely between Madrid and Barcelona, for instance, or within the confines of a city whereby interoperability is guaranteed and the solutions adopted are transparent to all users. The essential issue is the development of IT processes, standards and solutions, recharging infrastructures and smart networks that enable the users of electric vehicles to have easy, problem-free access to the recharging infrastructure and its associated services across the EU.

Beyond the technological aspects of the project, the goal of the consortium and the Spanish institutions that belong to it in this first stage is to make potential customers and the general public aware of mobility through talks and demonstration events at which they are able to find out more about the current solutions in electromobility. Understanding the concerns of the potential consumers of electromobility services and making them embrace the proposed technologies is key to implementing the results of the project properly.