Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The Department of Environmental Services of AMB provided support and expertise to MedCities network in technical assistance projects related to sustainability and urban development to cities members of the network. The first city to receive such assistance in local energy policies is Mahdia (Tunisia).

The starting point has been the energy audit of the Mahdia City Hall building, in order to draft an accurate diagnostic and identify saving and efficiency measures. This audit is the initial step for the installation of a solar photovoltaic in the building, a project chosen as a priority by the citizens of Mahdia through a participatory process.

The support and expertise provided by AMB consisted of an analysis of the energy audit and the review of the results and measures proposed. Being the climates of Mahdia and Barcelona quite similar, the challenges and problems to be solved in terms of building rehabilitation and achieving good conditions of thermal comfort and healthiness are equally common.

Furthermore, the MedCities network organized a seminar held at the Mahdia municipality where an AMB expert in energy and climatic change, gave two trainings with two different objectives: one focused on the European directives and objectives in rehabilitation of buildings, with a focus on illustrative cases in the AMB, and the other focusing on the role of the municipal energy manager: definition, goals and methodological proposals.

The mayor of Mahdia participated in the seminar, as well as several councilors and technicians from the STEG (Tunisian state energy company), and MedCities experts, exchanging impressions and ideas from the lectures presented.

In a near future, this project will lead to the selection and training of an energy manager for the municipality of Mahdia, supervising the installation of the photovoltaic panels and the implementation of other foreseen actions (LED lighting, presence detectors for climate control, monitoring systems) and the extension of this energy strategy to all buildings of the city. These will be the foundations of a solid energy policy aimed at a new energy model to combat climate change, a key issue in both Mediterranean shores, where its impact is expected to be especially severe.