Situation
Futebol Clube Barreirense is a renowned Portuguese sports institution founded in 1911 and based at the Campo de Verderena in Barreiro. F.C. Barreirense is at the heart of the local sports community. Alongside top-level football and basketball teams, it supports clubs for futsal, gymnastics, chess, and many more popular sports.
Given this wide range of activities, F.C. Barreirense wanted to explore options to lower the energy costs at its facilities, while reducing its carbon footprint. The club also wanted to ensure that the local community would be closely involved and supported, especially those in energy poverty.
After consulting with Cleanwatts, the club decided to establish a Renewable Energy Community at their headquarters, and in the process, to replace the existing asbestos roofing of its clubhouse.
“Barreirense is a historic club, which has a deep connection to Barreiro and its people. It is therefore closely aligned with the principles of Renewable Energy Communities: the idea of the sustainable and united community, where people consume clean energy, produced locally – by the community and for the community – at lower costs”.
“This community spirit is very alive in football, in sport, and in Barreirense , so the project proposed by Cleanwatts was very much appreciated, from the very beginning”.
Solution
Working with Cleanwatts, FC Barreirense will install 1013 photovoltaic panels on their headquarters with a peak capacity of 466kW. Cleanwatts fully financed the project, and will handle the installation, and management of the community.
The PV panels will supply electricity for the club’s energy requirements, which will be managed through Cleanwatts® OS. This operating system combines the benefits of energy efficiency processes alongside the management of distributed energy assets to maximize the value of the energy produced and consumed in the community.
The OS is supported by a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) solution that enables the aggregation of a wide range of power loads to enable grid balancing services and flexibility through integration into distribution networks. This simple and flexible solution processes and optimizes all energy needs in real time, both at the points of consumption and in the distribution network itself.
Results
With this REC, the club will be able to reduce its energy bill by 54% (average discount compared to the estimated tariff for grid energy) and take a significant step towards its energy independence: about 45% of the energy consumed by the club will come from the solar panels.
By working with Cleanwatts F.C. Barreirense were able to establish this community without any upfront costs, while avoiding the complicating factors of bureaucracy, energy management, and the permitting process.
In addition, the REC will benefit approximately 448 local families who will join the community and share the excess energy produced. Finally, F.C Barreirense will become climate-positive, generating 1150% more green energy than its total consumption while avoiding the emission of 194 equivalent tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.
