I'd been putting it off for years.
Having a personal site felt like an act of ego. I'm an engineer, a cooperativist, someone who believes the "I" disappears inside the "we". Talking about myself in the third person on a webpage felt awkward. Every time a friend suggested it — "Juan, you have to have a website" — I'd reply the same way: "I already have Sapiens, I already have AVACE, I already have LinkedIn, that's enough".
Until I realised it was the other way around.
The real ego
The real ego isn't having a site. It's not having one. It's thinking that what you've learned in twenty years of doing things — building wind farms, founding cooperatives, sitting with families who couldn't pay their bill, arguing with municipal auditors who didn't believe the model — belongs only to the people you happen to share rooms with.
What I learned founding aeioluz in 2015 was taught to me by people who took the time to write down what they knew. What I do in Sapiens stands on the shoulders of people who wrote things — Christian Felber on the Economy for the Common Good, Pablo Cotarelo on energy cooperativism, Jacqueline Novogratz on patient capital. I never sat in their kitchens. But I read what they left written.
Not sharing is the ego. Not the other way around.
What this site is for
For three concrete things, if I'm honest:
One. So when someone invites me to speak — and it happens more and more, thank you — I can send a single link instead of a PDF, a LinkedIn bio, a couple of stray YouTube videos and two articles. A site is the most modern way of saying "this is me, at one address".
Two. To write. To write the things I think after every assembly, every meeting with a mayor, every rooftop visit. Things I usually chew on alone on the drive back to Valencia and that get lost. If I write them here, at least they stay. And if they stay, someone can use them.
Three. So that people thinking of starting their own energy community — and there are more every day — find a place to land. Where they can read how it's done, what mistakes I made, which town councils joined in and which dropped out along the way. The energy transition won't be made by machines: it'll be made by people who decide to organise. And that requires information available.
Why you're late
The subtitle of the post is a bit provocative. I stand by it.
If you're reading this and thinking "hey, this energy community thing sounds good, maybe one day I'll go for it", let me tell you one thing: in Valencia we've gone from three communities in 2020 to more than ninety in 2026. Most of them happened because someone — a mayor, a neighbourhood association, a small business — decided one day to do it. Not fully knowing how. Learning along the way.
The ones already up and running have cheaper electricity than you do, save 30–40% a year, received grants that are running out, and are entering demand aggregators that in five years will give another turn of the screw. The first ones in the neighbourhood get the best rooftops. The best participants. The best banking terms.
I'm not saying this to rush you. I'm saying it because it's true.
What you'll find here
You'll find my story, my projects, my doubts, the data that matters to me, the people I admire and the town councils that surprise me. You'll find short and long reflections, depending on the day. You'll find links to the interviews people do with me — many, sometimes good — and to the work of partners who quietly do as much or more than I do.
And you'll find — I hope — an invitation. If what I'm saying resonates with you, if your town is considering an energy community, if your company wants to pivot toward impact economy, if you need a talk, if you're looking for insurance for your PV installation, if you simply want to reply to something I write — write to me. I'm one email away.
This isn't a website. It's an open door.
— Juan, April 2026, from Valencia.