Oñati continues to take steps towards energy sovereignty
- For 120 years it has been producing, managing and broadcasting energy from Oñati. Since 2000 Oñargi S.L. Goiener purchased 10% of Oñatiko Ur Jauziak’s shares last July.
The Goiener cooperative, dedicated to the production and consumption of renewable energies, acquired in July 10% of the shares of Oñatiko Ur Jauziak, with a capital increase of EUR 445,000.
Oñati Mayor Mikel Biain said in an interview at Info7 Irratia that it is “satisfying” news to “take advantage of the new opportunities” that can be generated in the sector and to “contribute to the financing” of the investments that the association has to make to improve facilities and automation.
Over a century producing energy
In the energy sector, almost completely privatized and monopolized at present, the Oñati waterfalls generate 15 million kilobatia year enough to supply energy to all the dwellings of the municipality.
Biain explained that Oñargi, with its own staff and offices, offers the citizens a “close” service and that, being a profit-making company, it also helps to finance the City Council’s budget.
Although he has said that it is "a lot" to say that it is "energetically sovereign", Biain has stressed that enough energy is produced to supply "all" the dwellings of the municipality.
The mayor has been willing to “collaborate” with other municipalities and to “contribute” from his experience.
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