The Naturgy Foundation presents an innovative virtual journey into space to raise awareness on the planet’s environmental challenges, the energy transition and the circular economy
The new dissemination project Energy Challenge can be visited from today until Sunday as part of the ‘Green Castellana Axis’, taking place in Madrid for COP25.
Renewable gas, responsible energy consumption habits and air quality are some of the issues that the Energy Challenge invites you to reflect on, in an interactive and interesting space journey aboard an efficient 70m2 vehicle, guided by a state-of-the-art robot.
The Energy Challenge will visit around forty Spanish municipalities during next year, where it hopes to attract 100,000 visitors.
Today, the Naturgy Foundation is presenting its new Energy Challengeawareness-raising project at the ‘Green Castellana Axis’ (Eje Castellana Verde) in Madrid. This travelling, innovative experience aims to teach young people and the general public about the energy transition, the circular economy, air quality and new energy technologies.
Touch screens with 360º projection of a hundred videos, rotating seats and a smart robot called Energy 360 are all part of the technology behind the Energy Challenge experience .
Visitors are invited to take a space trip in a futuristic aircraft commanded by state-of-the-art robots. By doing so they become part of a space mission to solve the energy challenge at a time of transition to decarbonisation like that today.
On their 20-minute journey, crew members observe the Earth and the Cosmos to reflect on and become aware of the planet’s climate emergency and the need to contribute to key issues such as the circular economy, air quality and new energy technologies.
The initiative shows the key role of innovation and responsible consumption habits in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on energy.
What’s more, the Naturgy Foundation has installed this experience in an environmentally friendly 70 m2 vehicle, which has a dual natural gas engine. When running, it generates between 15% and 20% less CO2 emissions than conventional diesel engines. It also contributes to improved air quality by reducing particulate emissions by 39% and NO2 emissions by 30% compared to a vehicle running on diesel fuel alone.
The Naturgy Foundation’s managing director, María Eugenia Coronado, defined the new project as a “disruptive initiative to explain the environmental challenge facing the planet”. “All citizens need to be aware of the challenges we face and of the fact that it is our responsibility to reverse climate change,” she said, adding that “initiatives such as the Energy Challenge, with which we will travel throughout Spain, can help to raise awareness among the population and explain that we have new energy vectors, such as renewable gas, which can help make the circular economy and energy transition a reality”.
After COP25, the Energy Challenge will visit around forty municipalities in the Madrid region, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Galicia, Andalusia, Valencia and Catalonia. The first to receive the visit, before the end of the year, will be: Valdemoro (on 16 and 17, at Calle Hispanoamérica, 3), Parla (on 18, in Calle Brasil and Calle Bolivia), and Valladolid (from 26 to 31 December, at the Navival Christmas fair).
Coronado explained that “we have a very ambitious goal: to achieve 100,000 visits by the end of 2020”. The managing director of the Naturgy Foundation encouraged everyone who sees the Energy Challenge in their city to visit it, “because we're sure that the experience we propose is going to make people think. This is always the step before individual action, to contribute towards improving our environment.”
The Energy Challenge experience will be complemented with another informative resource from the Foundation, The Circular Challenge, an interactive competition on renewable gas production and the circular economy, which will be installed next to the efficient vehicle on all the stops it makes.
This new initiative from the Naturgy Foundation is free of charge and can be adapted for primary and secondary school pupils as well as the general public. It will also be open to groups that request an arranged visit.
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