Lázaro Home Solar: Solar energy for the Hogar Lázaro shelter

Lázaro Home Solar

Solar energy for the Hogar Lázaro shelter

A collective loan brought solar panels and aerothermal heating to the Lázaro home in Madrid

In 2023, through Solar Crowd, its crowdlending platform, Light Humanity raised the funding for a solar energy and aerothermal heat pump system at the Fundación Hogares Lázaro home in Madrid, where people who have lived on the street share flats with young professionals. The aim: to heat and cool the building at lower cost and with less environmental impact.

  • What it is: a solar energy and aerothermal heat pump system for the Fundación Lázaro home in Madrid, paid for with the crowdfunded loan “Light of Lázaro”.
  • Who it's for: a building of flats shared by homeless people and young people; according to Solar Crowd, more than 35 people benefit.
  • Where: at the Fundación Hogares Lázaro home in Madrid, whose premises on Calle Luis Larrainza (Chamartín) hosted the meeting about the project in June 2023.
  • Partners: Fundación Hogares Lázaro, the Solar Crowd platform and Eugenio García-Calderón Huerta, founder of Light Humanity and co-founder of Solar Crowd.
  • How it was paid for: with loans from individuals and companies that are repaid in instalments, not with donations.
  • In 2023: an open meeting at Lázaro's premises in June and a feature by Xataka in November, which held up Casa Lázaro as an example.
Young man in a Lázaro sweatshirt among the solar panels on the roof, in Madrid
A young man from Lázaro poses among the solar panels on the roof of the Madrid home. Photo: Solar Crowd
Mounting structures and solar panels on a flat roof for the Light of Lázaro project
Mounting the structures and solar panels on the roof. Photo: Solar Crowd
A group in Lázaro sweatshirts smiling at the door of the Madrid home
The Lázaro Madrid community at the door of their home. Photo: Fundación Lázaro
A large group of people in Lázaro sweatshirts posing at a Christmas celebration
The Lázaro community's Christmas party. Photo: Solar Crowd
Vídeo: Encuentro "Energía solar para la inclusión social" - Solar Crowd, Fundación Lázaro y Light Humanity
Recording of the meeting “Solar Energy for Social Inclusion”, held by Solar Crowd, Fundación Lázaro and Light Humanity (7 June 2023). Video: Solar Crowd (YouTube)

Lázaro: flats shared by homeless people and young people, in Madrid since 2017

Lázaro began in France in 2011 to offer solidarity housing shared by young volunteers and homeless people, according to its page on Solar Crowd. It started in Spain in 2017, in the very centre of Madrid, and today has homes in Madrid, Barcelona, El Puerto de Santa María and Pamplona (Lázaro España).

  • Flats for 6 to 10 people: each resident has their own room and shares the kitchen, living room and bathroom.
  • Half and half: half of the flatmates have lived on the street; each pays rent according to their income (Lázaro España).
  • A family in every home: a volunteer family lives in the same building and takes responsibility for the home.
  • What Lázaro achieves: 85% of the people it houses find accommodation when they leave and 80% find work within a year, according to the Solar Crowd page.
  • On video: the foundation sums it up in “Lázaro in 2 Minutes”.
Several people in Lázaro T-shirts talking, seated in a circle in a room
A talk at Lázaro Madrid. Photo: Fundación Lázaro
Five women in Lázaro sweatshirts smiling together in the kitchen of a shared flat
Five women from Lázaro Madrid, together in the kitchen. Photo: Fundación Lázaro

The Madrid home, in a former residence in Chamartín

Since 2023, Lázaro's Madrid home has been in a renovated former residence for nuns on Calle Luis Larrainza, inside the M-30 ring road, according to the foundation.

  • Places: one flat for eight men, another for seven women, and two studios.
  • The responsible family: lives in an apartment in the same building.

Shelters with electricity, but no money to invest in efficiency

Unlike the Cañada Real, Casa Lázaro did have electricity. What it lacked, its then director Isabel de las Casas told Xataka, was the funding to become more energy efficient.

“Light Humanity offered us that investment in efficient energy, something we could never have contemplated ourselves” — Isabel de las Casas, director of Casa Lázaro in 2023 (Xataka)
  • A common problem: there are shelters housing around 50 people that receive no grants or public funding and seek donations to pay their electricity bills, Eugenio García-Calderón told Energías Renovables.
  • Electricity doesn't come free: at these shelters, “they may have the building on free loan, but they still have to pay for the energy”, he summed up.
  • The response: after financing families in the Cañada Real, Light Humanity began raising loans for shelters too.
Isabel de las Casas, of Casa Lázaro, in conversation in a living room with Ángela Blanco, of Xataka
Isabel de las Casas, then director of Casa Lázaro, with Ángela Blanco, of Xataka. Image: Xataka
Two men preparing food together in the kitchen of Casa Lázaro, in Madrid
In the kitchen of Casa Lázaro, during the Xataka feature. Image: Xataka
Isabel de las Casas and Ángela Blanco, of Xataka, with a resident of the centre
Ángela Blanco and Isabel de las Casas with one of the centre's residents. Image: Xataka

The “Light of Lázaro” crowdfunded loan on the Solar Crowd platform

To pay for the work, Light Humanity opened the loan “Light of Lázaro” on Solar Crowd. The platform does not ask for donations: it gathers loans from individuals and companies, which the beneficiary repays in affordable instalments, interest-free or at a very low rate, as Xataka explained.

  • Who lends: anyone, choosing an annual return of between 0 and 6% (Energías Renovables, June 2023).
  • Who is behind it: Light Humanity incubated Solar Crowd, which launched at the end of 2022; its co-founders include Eugenio García-Calderón and Arturo Rubio (Funds Society).

Solar-powered aerothermal heat pump to heat and cool the home

The loan financed a solar-powered aerothermal heat pump system for Lázaro's Madrid home. According to the loan page, this combination saves energy and makes it possible to heat and cool the building at lower cost and with less environmental impact.

  • What aerothermal energy is: a heat pump that draws energy from the air to provide heating and cooling.
  • Capacity: 24 kW of installed solar power, according to the loan page.

“Solar Energy for Social Inclusion” meeting at Lázaro's premises, 7 June 2023

Solar Crowd and Light Humanity issued invitations to the meeting “Solar Energy for Social Inclusion”, in person and online, to meet people involved in the Fundación Lázaro shelter and talk about how solar energy can help social inclusion.

  • When: Wednesday 7 June 2023, from 19:00 to 21:00.
  • Where: at Calle Luis Larrainza 46 in Madrid, the premises of Fundación Lázaro, and online.
  • Programme: presentation of the project and a tour of the space and the installations.
  • Recording: Solar Crowd published it the next day on YouTube.

Xataka visited Casa Lázaro and Light Humanity won the Honor Seal

Vídeo: Energía solar accesible para salvar de la pobreza energética La visión de Light Humanity
Xataka feature on Light Humanity, including its visit to Casa Lázaro (10/11/2023). Video: Xataka (YouTube)

In November 2023, Xataka told the story of Light Humanity in its series “In Search of HONORability”. To show how each installation is adapted to its setting, it chose the Casa Lázaro project, a shelter in Madrid where students and homeless people live together.

  • In the house: Ángela Blanco, of Xataka, spoke with the then director, Isabel de las Casas, and the feature shows them with one of the centre's residents.
  • On video: the same day, Xataka published “Affordable solar energy to rescue people from energy poverty”, about Light Humanity's work in the Cañada Real, shelters in Madrid, Sagunto and Toledo, and the Amazon.
  • Recognition: Light Humanity received the Honor Seal from that series, which Xataka produces with the Honor brand, “for its work and the impact it has generated”.

Lázaro, Sagunto and Toledo: the shelters Solar Crowd cited in 2023

In 2023, Lázaro was one of the examples Solar Crowd cited in Spain, alongside the shelters in Sagunto and Toledo.

  • February 2023: El Referente was already reporting that Solar Crowd had provided access to energy for social centres in Sagunto and for Fundación Lázaro.
  • June 2023: Funds Society and Energías Renovables repeated this when presenting the campaign to bring solar energy to 30,000 people in Honduras.
  • May 2024: in Energías Renovables, Eugenio García-Calderón recalled the projects at shelters in Sagunto and Toledo and at “Fundación Lázaro in Madrid, which takes in homeless people”.
  • What came next: in Toledo, heritage protection rules ruled out installing panels, and from that came the remote self-consumption model of Comunidad Solar.

In the media