The Zona Franca of Barcelona and the Industry and Energy Forum stand up for public-private collaboration

• The headquarters of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) have hosted today the first meeting organized by the entity and the Industry and Energy Forum (FIE) to analyze the energetic management of the industry in front of the ecological transition process.

• The program has addressed various topics on the energy industry in an open dialogue space with the participation of representatives from industry, energy and public administrations.

 Barcelona, 3^rd of February, 2022 –The first Industry and Energy Conference organized by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) and the Industry and Energy Forum (FIE) has been held today in Barcelona to discuss the energetic needs of industry and the contribution of different technologies to ecological transition process. The event brought together in an open dialogue space multiple actors involved in the energetic management of industry, from energy producers to consumer industries through the administration, technology manufacturers and academic institutions, in a face-to-face event at the headquarters of the CZFB and which was also accessible online.

Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State at the CZFB, has been in charge of welcoming the first meeting with these characteristics to be held at a national level, with a multi-sector and multi-level approach, together with Eduardo Álvarez, technical coordinator of the Industry and Energy Forum and professor of the Energy Department of the University of Oviedo, and Ignacio Villaverde, rector of the University of Oviedo. Navarro has highlighted that “from the CZFB we have always been committed to industry and the generation of new opportunities, and precisely this crisis has served to see the need to manufacture closer and better, and also the need to generate cleaner energy. And here we are also collaborating in projects such as PERTE, the installation of photovoltaic panels in the companies of the Zona Franca industrial park or the start-up of the first Hydrogen Plant for public use in Spain”. “This day was born out of the desire to bring together the different actors involved in this process of ecological transition”, adds Navarro.

 Featured Sessions

The program has focused on different topics related to the energy industry and has opened with the session “Industry and energy: a common goal”, moderated by Javier Santacruz, FIE analyst. The dialogue included the participation of José Montilla, former President of the Generalitat de Catalunya and former Minister of Industry, Rafael Gaos, Head of the Industry Department of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), Ministry of Ecological Transition and De-mographic Challenge, and Joan Romero, Executive Director of the Agència per la Competitivitat de l’Empresa, ACCIÓ – Generalitat de Catalunya.

Thereupon, the first block has started, moderated by Juan Carlos Valero, journalist and Institutional Relations of ABC-Vocento in Catalonia, which addressed the needs and projects of the industry in front of the energetic transition. The session was led by Miguel Rodríguez, Commissioner for Agenda 2030 of the Barcelona City Council, who focused on industry-energy collaboration models from the perspective of municipal entities.

Next, the dialogue on the contribution of energy technologies to industrial competitiveness during the ecological transition has taken over, with the participation of Manel Manchón, deputy director of Crónica Global, as moderator. In the debate, El Cluster de l’Energia Eficient de Catalunya, COGEN España, Endesa and Naturgy have discussed the industrial value of renewables, circular economy at the service of industry, new energy models, and storage in industrial energy management.

Finally, the program has concluded with the session on new technologies, focused on green hydrogen applications in industry. Ana Victoria Suárez, editor-in-chief of Industry Talks, moderated this debate, which analyzed the energy of the future foreseen by Jules Verne, in charge of César Álvarez, director of EnerHi Hydrogen; the first green hydrogen project from photovoltaics in Mallorca, by Carlos Navas, Hydrogen Project Management Manager at Enagás Renovables; the industrial applications of green hydrogen by Jesús Ballesteros, member of the Board of Jenbacher, and the hydroline project at CZFB, addressed by Javier Plaza, head of Green Hydrogen Optimization at Iberdrola.

José Antonio Galdón Ruiz, president of the General Council of Industrial Technical Engineering of Spain (COGITI) has been in charge of closing the event, highlighting “the importance of the contribution of the industrial fabric in the development of any society”, as well as “the capacity of influence it has on the rest of the countries and the economy, something that can be seen above all in the most industrialized countries. Within this capacity of influence, we also have the energy sector”, has emphasized.