The city of Vigo, the most important in Northwest Spain according to various indicators, has a population of three hundred thousand inhabitants and a metropolitan area of over half a million people.

The city has a powerful industry: shipbuilding, granite, fishing, and fish processing and preservation. The automotive industry is particularly important; the French group PSA Peugeot-Citroën, has located here its second largest factory in Europe. The city also has an important port, which is a commercial hub intentional addition to receiving cruises.

Vigo is also a smart and sustainable city, involved in the environment. This year, the city has been awarded, with 10 other cities in Spain, with the award “Smart cities Information Society 2015”.

Regarding energy and environment, the city has launched its “Plan for energy saving and efficiency” which includes a map of the light spots of the city, a study of uses of electric vehicles and the implementation of renewable energy installations (small wind turbines, solar photo-voltaic and solar thermal systems). In collaboration with other European entities, Vigo participates in three projects: SUM (Sustainable Urban Mobility), Mobi.Europe and Greencity.

Demonstration objectives

The demonstration will take place in three European cities chosen in Spain and in France, and will reach at least 200 homes.

The targeted homes will be placed in public buildings in the French cities.

In Spain most of the homes are privately owned (85%) and social housing for rent is negligible (2%).

There is no a social housing stock as in other European countries.

The dwelling stock considered social housing in Spain is subsidized housing, which are marketed directly for sale with a price fixed by the government lower than market price. Therefore, due to the limited supply of social housing for rent, the selection of houses in the project is based on social housing built between 1950s and 1970s by:

National Institute of Housing

The private sector through the social work of the savings banks (Promotora Benéfico Popular de la Caja de Ahorros de Vigo) and other companies (Fenosa, Citroën and Vulcano shipyards)

Although today these houses are privately owned. In this first phase, near to 3000 homes have been identified of which will be selected the demonstration houses according to the project requirements.