The sun is also ours: how to talk about renewables at a critical moment for energy

On 25 March, at the European Climate Foundation offices in Madrid, we brought together a small group of communicators working on energy. The conflict in the Strait of Hormuz was very much present, putting oil prices in headlines and energy decisions back on the front page. That's why we took the Audience Chatbot to the session, a tool that allows you to hold conversations with audience profiles built from real social media data. Four months of conversations about energy, available at the touch of a key. The idea was simple: test messages, frames and narratives about energy, and see what resonated, what didn't work, and why.

Two communication challenges came up during the session: how to talk about renewables to those who experience them as something imposed, and how to defend them in front of those who distrust them from opposite ideological sides. What follows are six narrative keys that emerged from that session and from the subsequent analysis of the conversations accumulated with the chatbot over recent months.

1. The far right doesn't deny climate change: it attacks who proposes the solutions

One of the things the bot reminds us of is that pure, frontal climate denialism is no longer as widespread a position as is sometimes assumed. What appears with force in far-right audiences is not the denial of science: it's the rejection of the messengers, of the institutions that propose, and of the political opponents associated with the climate discourse. We do find subtle denialism or delayism, but it isn't a matter of arguments.

The real discussion doesn't happen at the level of data, but at the level of legitimacy: who decides, who benefits, and at whose cost the transition is made. This changes the communication strategy at its root. The useful battle isn't winning the scientific argument; it's contesting the political frame: showing that the transition is made from here, for those of us here, and without the cost falling once again on the same people.

2. "What's ours" is not far-right language: it's a terrain we can inhabit

Energy experts remind us that we have real reasons to feel proud of the energy we produce. Spain is the second-largest renewable power in Europe¹. Last year we stopped sending €15 billion abroad thanks to the energy we generate here². And at the local level, we have stories to tell: in Galicia, the Mondigo wind farm has allowed 500 households to cut their electricity bill by up to 80%³. In Murcia, a floating solar plant provides energy and water to 9,500 farmers⁴. And in much of the country, cooperatives like Som Energia (based in Catalonia, the largest green energy cooperative in Spain) or Nosa Enerxía (in Galicia) prove that the sun can also belong to those who receive it.

It's striking, however, that many audiences (even those favourable to the transition) still rely on international references to defend it: the German energy cooperatives (Bürgerwerke groups more than 110), the Danish community wind farms (where the law requires new wind farms to have at least 20% citizen ownership), the island of Samsø. They are powerful examples, but there is an imbalance: we have homegrown experiences that aren't as widely known. The local story is there; it has potential, and we have to tell it more and better so it can occupy the communicative space it deserves.

Some keys to telling this pride well:

• Use concrete figures, not distant horizons. "€15 billion we stopped sending abroad" works better than "advancing towards decarbonisation".
• Name the places and the protagonists. Mondigo, Murcia, Som Energia, the 9,500 farmers. The more concrete, the more it connects.
• Use the language of what's ours: "The sun is ours", "our wind", "the energy that stays here". These are phrases that connect emotionally.
• Seek out and elevate local references before international ones. If a Danish cooperative works as an example, a Galician or Catalan cooperative is proof that here it's also possible.

3. One example carries more weight than an argument

Without losing sight of the fact that the perception of renewables is generally positive, in some audiences resistance emerges that has to do with deployment done badly at the local scale: mega-projects imposed without consultation, altered landscapes, benefits that leave the municipality. Without realising it, we explain renewables through a macro frame (2030 targets, decarbonisation, gigawatts installed) that doesn't address that territorial concern, which is latent and very widespread.

For institutional audiences, and for those who understand climate urgency as a national issue, that state-level frame makes sense. For others, leaning on examples of well-installed renewables works better. Here we speak of villages, neighbours, landscape, cooperatives, decisions made close by, and benefits that stay in the municipality. The question stops being "are we for or against renewables?" and becomes "how, where and for whom do we build them?". On that ground, very different audiences agree more than expected: the right size for the plant, no agricultural land, community decision-making, economic benefits that stay, transparency.

And as we said before, there is power in telling the local story, in telling "what's ours". The state-level frame gives scale and urgency; the local one gives confidence with concrete examples — it makes it tangible, possible. The opportunity lies in giving the second the space it deserves: telling more, and better, how deployment is being done well. Telling more of the good practices we want to see. Driving them forward.

4. The role of the corporate sector is an active source of dissent

For an important part of progressive audiences (the more critical left and ecologist audiences with territorial sensitivity), the role of large corporations in the transition is a constant point of friction. It's not a rejection of renewables as technology: it's an open question about who controls them, who manages them, and who benefits from the change.

This is a debate that gets activated with every message that touches the topic, and it's worth keeping in mind. The good news is that there's a natural way out, and it connects with what we said in the previous point: talking more, and better, about the local deployment that does work.

Coming back to our stories: when we tell how Mondigo allowed 500 households to lower their bill, how Som Energia democratically manages its projects, how the floating plant in Murcia provides water and energy to 9,500 farmers, or how energy cooperatives reinvest profits in municipal services, we are indirectly answering that question about the model. There's no need to enter into a head-on debate about the big utilities to shift the frame. Showing that another way of doing things exists (and that it's already happening) enriches the conversation, avoids oversimplification, and opens space for a plurality of actors that rarely appears in the dominant narrative.

The question about the energy model isn't going to be settled in a single campaign, but it can be kept alive. And as long as it stays alive, there is more narrative space for these audiences to build alternatives.

5. The same transition is told differently depending on who you're talking to

There is a continuum of audiences that are favourable, or potentially favourable, to renewables, and each one enters through a different door. There's no need to invent new arguments:

• To the critical left, renewables aren't told through simplified geopolitics, because it doesn't work. They are told through public control, energy communities and the liberation from the oligopoly. The story that works is Samsø, the Danish island that became self-sufficient with energy managed by the residents themselves.
• To ecologist audiences with territorial sensitivity, renewables aren't told through the 2030 target or the gigawatt: they are told through respect for the landscape, binding community participation, and benefits that stay in the municipality. The story that works is Nosa Enerxía in Galicia, or any local cooperative that shows it can be done another way.
• To progressives with social sensitivity, what resonates is liberation from the oligopoly and savings for families. The story that works is Som Energia: it started small, today it reinvests profits in the community, and it shows that the sun can also belong to those who receive it.
• For audiences close to conservative institutional managers in the regions, renewables are told as a national project done well, with planning, returns to the territory, and regional leadership. The story that works is the floating plant in the Cola reservoir in Murcia: a concrete case where the transition isn't an abstract promise but infrastructure that benefits people with names and faces.

Along that continuum (from the critical left to territorial ecologism, from there to social progressivism and from there to the conservative regional manager), there is a common thread that no audience rejects: that the benefits stay close, that the decisions are understood, that someone concrete gains from this.

6. Keys to adapting our jargon to a colloquial language that resonates

An important part of communicative work isn't just what you say, but how you say it. Technical terms like decarbonisation or electrification circulate naturally inside the sector, but often don't activate anything in those who receive them.

Some translations that have worked in conversations with the bot:

These are the keys we've drawn after months of activity with the bot and the 25 March session. We hope they help to tell the transition better, to connect more with people's real concerns, and to tell stories that are more personal and more human.

We'll keep developing tools like the Audience Chatbot: so that the intelligence generated by each conversation is shared, and so that technology serves the communicators who are building, in difficult conditions, the narratives we need.

Without all of you who came to the sessions, who use the tool every week, and who frankly tell us what's missing, we wouldn't have managed to write these lines. Thank you.

You can enter the Audience Chatbot to talk with the audiences about energy and draw your own conclusions, consult the energy report, or write to us at info@komons.org for more information.

How to make the most of the Audience Chatbot

If you're up for using the tool, here are some prompts that have given good results.

• To test a specific message before publishing it:
  "What do you think of this message: [your message]? What convinces you? What doesn't? How would you reword it for yourself?"
• To find stories and examples that work:
  "What story or example do you use to defend renewables?"
• To identify credible voices:
  "What spokesperson or reference would make you take a message about renewables seriously?"
• To discover what makes a project acceptable:
  "Imagine you have to design a renewables project in your village. How would you do it?"
• To translate a technical term into everyday language:
  "How would you talk about decarbonisation in everyday words?"
• To identify the strong or weak points of your report or position paper:
  "In this text, what resonates with you most? What generates rejection? What would you change?"

A tip: testing the same message across several audiences in a row tends to be very revealing. That's where the differences between audiences, and the logic behind each one, become clearest.

Footnotes:

[1] Spain ranks second in Europe in installed renewable capacity, behind Germany, and third in the share of electricity generated from renewables, after Germany and Norway (data from Redeia and Eurostat, 2024). More information at Newtral.

[2] According to the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), the photovoltaic industry contributes more than €15 billion to the national GDP, five times more than a decade ago. The same source notes that Spain has reached 50 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity and now covers 22% of national electricity demand. Full UNEF press release (12 February 2026): "10 facts that demonstrate the great strategic value of photovoltaic solar energy in Spain".

[3] The Mondigo wind farm, located between Ribadeo and Trabada (Lugo), was acquired by Recursos de Galicia (a company part-owned by the regional government, the Xunta) in February 2026 for €75 million. Under Law 2/2024 on the promotion of the social and economic benefits of projects using Galicia's natural resources, the 500 households within a 1.8 km radius of the wind farm will see their electricity bills reduced by up to 80%. Press release from the Xunta.

[4] Floating photovoltaic plant at the Cola reservoir, in the Campo de Cartagena area (Murcia), inaugurated in March 2026. It serves more than 9,500 farmers irrigating 45,000 hectares, with estimated savings of €350,000 per year and avoiding 700 tonnes of CO₂ annually. It is the largest plant of its kind in an irrigators' community in Spain. Coverage in Murcia Diario.