Just a few kilometres from Coruña Airport and from an aeroplane window thousands of meters up, above the clouds an image can be seen that has been a feature of the Galician landscape for nearly fifty years, namely the Endesa Termic with the Carballeira (24.4MW power) wind farm in the background since 2004.
The Endesa Termic, with a height of 356 metres, is one of the largest chimneys in the world and at the time of its construction in 1976, it was the tallest in Europe.
With four carbon cycles that total 1,468 MW of power and a combined cycle of natural gas of 800MW, the thermal power plant in As Pontes is ranked seventeenth in the list of European companies that emit the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and number one in Spain.
Notwithstanding the announcement of its closure in 2020, and following various months of inactivity, in September 2022 the Spanish Ministry of Environment authorised the electric utility company ENDESA to keep two of the four groups at the thermal plant operative until modifications to certain regulations of the electrical system were carried out. In November 2022, the cargo ships once again started arriving at the outer harbour of Coruna, the first of which was from Indonesia, laden with 165,000 tonnes of coal in its hold.
This raises the question of whether the energy sector in Galica is able, or not, to halt or at least reduce its heavy dependence on fossil fuels.
It could, in part, if within “The Galician Strategy for Climate Change and Energy 2050”, greater promotion of the EU aid scheme to sectors with the potential for change, such as biogas, were to be included.
In September 2022, within the framework of the Spanish Government’s / Ministry of Environment’s “Recuperation, Transition and Resilience Plan” the first call for proposals for financial aid for unique biogas installation projects took place (Primera Convocatoria de Ayudas para Proyectos Singulares de Instalaciones de Biogás) . In this first edition, the plan had available funding of 150 million euros.
By the end of this first call, July 2023, 76.5 million euros had been granted to 81 projects (thus leaving half of the available funds unutilised) and were distributed in the following way:
Galicia is the only Autonomous Community not to have received a single euro from this programme and it should not be forgotten that it only presented one project which was rejected on the grounds that it did not meet some of the conditions of the programme administered by the IDAE – Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energético (The Institute for Energy Saving and Diversification).
This fact is even more striking when considering the data revealed by the “Study of biomethane production capacity in Spain, 2023” (“Estudio de la capacidad de producción de biometano en España, 2023”) which was carried out by SEDIGAS (Spanish Gas Association) and consultants PWC and Biovic. The study shows that Galicia is a potential producer of 7.99 TWh of biomethane per annum and is ahead of regions such as the Community of Valencia, Navarra, Murcia and the Basque Country.
How is it possible that in terms of potential energy production of biogas origin, the seventh largest region of the country only presented one project and which furthermore, was rejected?
Be that as it may, in September last year, the Xunta de Galicia (Government of Galicia) announced its support for the development of a plant to transform slurry and other animal wastes into biomethane and organic fertilizers, and in which Reganosa, Repsol and Naturgy as well as the semi-public company Impulsa Galicia will all participate.
It is anticipated that the project will have funding of 146 million euros and create 600 direct or indirect jobs.
The project involves the recovery of various mixed slurry surpluses mixed with a smaller amount of separately collected organic fraction and organic industrial wastes from the agri-food sector, for the purpose of obtaining renewable energy.
In the initial phase, there is a planned construction of an anaerobic digestion plant which will produce renewable gas and five pre-treatment plants to dehydrate the surplus slurry. The renewable gas plant will be located in Meirama (Cerceda), as a fair transition zone. Meanwhile the pre-treatment plants will be spread over different municipalities in the provinces of Coruña and Lugo closely reflecting the existing distribution of livestock farms for the purpose of optimising the logistics of the project.
It is expected that more than 1.2 million tonnes of surplus slurry will be treated on an annual basis which, in addition to organic fertilizers and the product known as green CO2, will result in the production of some 300 GWh of biomethane. This renewable gas will serve to decarbonise sectors such as transport, housing and industry and can be used in the industrial processes at the Repsol refinery in Coruña.
The intention is to extend the project, implementing a centralised network for the treatment of surplus livestock excrement. Submitted calculations estimate that as much as 6 million tonnes of waste could be recovered annually, resulting in the production of up to 1 TWh of biomethane per annum.
The project has been presented to four ministries: Economy, Environment, Agriculture and Industry, with the objective of qualifying for the Next Generation funding, based on both its circularity component and its contribution to the EU objectives of being climate neutral by 2050.
As of today, nearly a year since the announcement made by the Government of Galicia, it is unclear if there has been a response from any of the aforementioned ministries, which leaves the biogas sector in Galicia in the rather unusual situation of receiving no financial aid of any form whilst the other Autonomous Communities have already been developing their own projects.
Finally, we should not forget that Galicia already boasts six biogas plants which are distributed as follows:
- SOGAMA – Waste treatment plant – Cerceda (Coruña)
- EDAR Bens – Wastewater purification plant – Coruña
- SOLOGAS – Waste treatment plant – As Somozas (Coruña)
- EDAR Vigo – Wastewater purification plant – Pontevedra
- EDAR Ourense – Wastewater purification plant – Ourense
- COREN – Anaerobic digestion plant in a poultry processing centre – Santa Cruz de Arrabaldo (Ourense)
With two more planned:
- Frigoríficos Bandeira – Silleda (Pontevedra)
- Organic waste treatment plant for the agrifood and farming sector – Castro de Rei (Lugo)
In any event, the hope is that with the necessary help from the authorities, the sector can take off in this community. Meanwhile, here at HPBS we will continue to strengthen an industry which, like that of renewable gases, is sustainable and environmentally and societally friendly. There is also the hope that the Endesa Termic will stop emitting CO2, and continuing to consume vast quantities of coal.
HPBS
Your specialist in renewable gases
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