are reached all-time highs in the installation of equipment and the total installed power. This equipment is used to generate thermal energy of renewable and local origin to, above all, provide industrial heat and supply domestic heating. The year 2021 has set a new record in the installation of biomass equipment in Spain. The year ended with a park of biomass stoves and boilers (pellets, chips, bone, and other biofuels) greater than  512.000 operating units, which has been achieved thanks to the installation of 75.832 new devices during the year. Total installed power also grew to 14.090 MW, thanks to an increase of 1.391 MW compared to 2020.

THE INSTALLATION OF NEW PELLET STOVES AND BOILERS IN THE DOMESTIC SECTOR GREW 40% LAST YEAR 

Today, November 29, we celebrate "Bioenergy Day 2022" in Spain, four days earlier than last year.

Javier Díaz, president of the Spanish Biomass Association, highlights the progress achieved in 2022 by Spain, which has managed to bring the celebration of its Bioenergy Day forward to November 29, four days earlier than last year: "biomass has increased its contribution to the Spanish energy mix by 1% and already contributes 9% of all the energy we consume, which shows that we continue to consolidate sustained and sustainable growth. The role of bioenergy in the energy transition of our country is fundamental and, especially, when we talk about energy security”.

Bioenergy is a key provider of renewable energy in the European Union

The EU27 has also moved up the celebration of the European Bioenergy Day this year to 8 November. From October 9, 2022 and until the end of the year, renewables will provide 84 days of clean energy, of which bioenergy would take care of 52 days.

In 2021, bioenergy contributed 57% of all renewable energies and 14% of the total energy consumed in the EU27. In the renewable heating sector, its contribution is even more significant, since it accounts for more than 90% of the total clean energy used in this area.

And its penetration continues to increase in all the colder countries and regions, such as the northern and central areas of Spain, through efficient biomass heating networks -which are already close to 500 installations in our country- and due to the extraordinary increase in the installation of pellet stoves, whose market share increased by more than 40% last year in Spain and the park already exceeds 512.000 installed units.

In the EU, the Baltic region is a leader in developing bioenergy and enjoying its benefits: Estonia and Latvia have been the first states to celebrate their national bioenergy days (both could be supplied only with bioenergy for almost 5 months ( 144 days each), followed by Sweden and Finland with 140 days each.

From farm to forest: sustainable bioenergy to ensure energy security

Bioenergy Europe, a forerunner of the campaign since 2017, encourages each national bioenergy association in the EU to celebrate the national bioenergy day in their respective countries with the aim of showing the importance of the sector and sharing knowledge with citizens about the various raw materials used to generate bioenergy and the processes to achieve it.

Thus, this year, the campaign has the slogan "From the farm to the forest: sustainable bioenergy to guarantee energy security" and presents examples in each country, from projects in which agrobiomass or biomethane replace fossil gas, to innovative initiatives such as urban heat networks with biomass and carbon capture and storage.

Spain presents as a success story the biogas plant managed by Axpo on the Torre Santamaría family farm, Lleida, which transforms the manure generated by its cows and all its agri-food waste into biomethane for direct injection into the gas network.

Javier Díaz concludes with a message of optimism and confidence for consumers: "biomass will be with us for a long time, guaranteeing us comfort at costs that will soon stabilize again and be as competitive as they have been in the last 15 years."

The new testo 300 Longlife "NEXT LEVEL" combustion analyzer and the new range of testo 316 leak detectors that optimize the degree of efficiency of facilities and plants quickly and easily.

Thanks to improved combustion and the prevention of gas leaks, energy and costs can be saved. An especially important topic now that the prices of raw materials are very high!

The testo 300 Longlife “NEXT LEVEL” combustion analyzer allows flue gas measurements to be carried out easily and efficiently even in large installations:

• Parallel wireless measurements in record time
• Practical second screen function by linking to the App
• Simple and intuitive documentation and data integration in the company's own software

The testo 316-1-EX gas leak detector, a professional device for the flammable gas area and for high safety requirements, which allows to further increase the efficiency of facilities and buildings. It will be available from January 2023.

European forests are under increasing pressure from rising temperatures, causing more forest fires, pests and diseases that threaten their ability to store carbon dioxide and safeguard biodiversity.

The Association of Heat and Cold Network Companies (ADHAC), has just recently published the Census of Heat and Cold Networks of 2022. This census adds 20 new heating networks, reaching a total of 516 heating and cooling networks operating in Spain.

Of the 20 new heat networks, 19 use biomass as an energy source and one uses geothermal energy, in Langreo (Asturias). At a general level, of the total heating and cooling networks that operate in Spain: 71% only use biomass as an energy source and another 7% use biomass and other energy sources as support.

By Autonomous Communities, Catalonia stands out above all the other networks with 14 networks, followed by Castilla y León and the Basque Country with two and Galicia with one. In fact, only in the province of Barcelona have been built this year 11 of the 20 start-ups.

Currently, there are many new networks being planned and built. The sector trusts that the aid published by the Government of Spain and the Autonomous Communities will encourage this heating system, which has great benefits for the decarbonization of energy and the fight against climate change, the reduction of air pollution in cities by replacing thousands of individual heaters and considerably reducing the heating costs of consumers and customers.

ADHAC has collaborated with the promotion of Expobiomasa on a regular basis since 2014, and publishes the Census of Heat and Cold Networks on an annual basis. You can find in the following link the censuses and presentations of the last years.

The Soria Heat Network with #biomass has just incorporated its third new construction development. On this occasion there are 26 apartments that are connected to the heating district of Rebi for heating and hot water. Recently, the municipal market has been connected to the network and five other blocks have signed their adhesion.

Some characteristics of the network are:

• Commissioning on January 8, 2015.
• 28 kilometers of pre-insulated pipe in two directions under the streets of Soria. 
• 24-hour control center for attention to alarms or emergencies.
• It connects all its customers through fiber optics.
• More than 8.000 homes and 24 non-residential buildings.
• Three 7MW boilers, 21MW in total.
• Buffer tank of 5.000 m3 
• It generates 80 million kWh/year, and replaces more than 8 million liters of diesel and almost 1 million m3 of natural gas.
• It avoids the emission of more than 16.000 tons of CO2/year. 
• Minimum reduction of 10 percent on the previous invoice. 

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It also offers information on the 35 ENplus® certified pellet distributors and, for the first time, on BIOmasud® certified firewood manufacturers and distributors. On the other hand, it includes data from the 54 pellet, chip and bone centers in Portugal.

pellet plants

All the autonomous communities, except the Canary Islands and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, have a pellet plant. The 83 factories inventoried by AVEBIOM in April 2020 are distributed throughout 31 provinces of the 50 that make up the Spanish State. And between all of them they add a theoretical production capacity close to 2.000.000 tons per year.

It will allow users savings of between 30% and 50% of their energy bill, compared to the current high prices. Through a modern renewable energy park in León that the Board will build, through Somacyl, green hydrogen will also be generated for mobility and industrial uses.

The park will be located on a 22-hectare plot to the south of the city of León and will feature a hybridization of the most modern renewable technologies: a generation plant with sustainable biomass, a green hydrogen production plant, a production and generation plant with biogas and photovoltaic solar power plant.

Generation plant with sustainable biomass
The sustainable biomass generation plant building will have an area of ​​about 5.000 m2, divided into three areas: biomass storage, heat generation and auxiliary uses. The biomass boilers will be state-of-the-art, with mobile grate combustion systems, continuous combustion control in three phases and automatic cleaning systems. The maximum thermal power of this plant will be 75 MW. Each boiler will have a double emissions treatment system, made up of a first filtering stage using a multicyclone and a second filtering stage using an electrofilter with yields greater than 99%.

The wood that will be used as fuel in the plant will be forest chips (basically poplar, pine and oak) of natural origin and controlled traceability, meeting the sustainability criteria of the European Union. Likewise, other equipment associated with the generation of thermal energy will be located in this building: pumping systems, valves, meters, expansion system... In addition, the plant will have a sensible heat storage system of 10.000 m3 that will allow the accumulation of thermal energy renewable at night, when the city's demand drops, to provide it during the day when the demand peaks of the buildings occur.

Production and generation plant with biogas
The energy complex will have a biogas production plant from the organic fraction of the city's urban waste supplemented with other agricultural waste. The minimum annual biogas production will be 1.000.000 Nm3, which will be used directly through a modulating biogas boiler that will produce hot water for the district network.

Green hydrogen production plant
The third large facility that the renewable park will have will be a 5 MW green hydrogen production plant, using two electrolysers of 2,5 MW each, which will be installed in two phases. The hydrogen generated will be about 400.000 kg/year, intended for mobility in the city and for use in nearby industry. In addition, in a complementary way, surplus oxygen will be used in the electrolysis process, also for industrial uses, and residual heat from the process will be recovered to generate hot water for the heat network.

photovoltaic solar power plant
The rest of the plot will have a photovoltaic solar energy installation with a power of 7,5 MW for self-consumption of the electricity demand of the complex.

Heat Exchange Substations
An exchange substation will be installed in each connected building, which will be located in the current boiler rooms. Its function is to hydraulically decouple the heat network and the internal circuit of each building, as well as to transfer thermal energy from the external circuit to the buildings. The main components of the substation are: the heat exchanger, the control valve, the energy meter and the secondary impulsion pump.

The facility has been designed for automatic operation of all the elements (power plant, transport network and substations), which will be connected to each other. In addition, an advanced control and telemanagement system will be installed, which will allow generation to be adapted to demand at all times, minimizing electricity consumption and thermal losses.

Thermal power supply capacity
León's sustainable heat network will be able to meet the demand of more than 28.000 homes and 150 tertiary buildings and will mean the shutdown of hundreds of fossil fuel boilers and chimneys in the city. When fully completed, the new infrastructure will have a renewable thermal energy production capacity of 350.000 useful MWh/year. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions achieved with this important environmental project amounts to 86.000 tons of CO2/year.

Project deadlines and budget
• The design engineering and licensing phase will begin in October 2022 and will last 12 months.
• The construction phase of the renewable park will begin in October 2023 and will last 24 months.
• The construction phase of the main structuring branch -which runs between the renewable park and the León hospital- will begin in October 2023 and will last 24 months.
• The construction phase of the secondary branches for the interconnection of buildings will begin in January 2024, with the start of thermal supply to the first buildings in the 2024-2025 heating season, although the buildings will be able to start managing their connection to the heat network as early as 2023.
• The total budget required for the complete development of all parts of the project will be around 70.000.000 euros plus VAT.

Employment creation
The León Sustainable Heat Network also enables the creation of employment in different sectors: for the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure, 30 stable direct jobs will be created in the city of León; for the obtaining and logistics of the biomass necessary for its operation, 90 jobs will be created between direct and indirect in the rural world, and more than 250 people are expected to work in the construction works.

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The Council of Ministers, at the request of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, has approved a Royal Decree-Law 17/2022, of September 20, with several measures in the energy field, such as the VAT reduction from 21% to 5% in supplies of natural gas, pellets, briquettes and firewood, with savings for consumers of some 210 million euros; the possibility that cogeneration temporarily abandon its regulated remuneration regime, so that the Iberian Mechanism is applied to it; or the creation of a new active demand response service that will increase the flexibility and security of the electricity system.

AVEBIOM, the Spanish Biomass Association, has repeatedly requested this reduction, the last time it was a letter sent to the Government of Spain last week, arguing the social, economic and environmental benefit that this measure entails for all Spaniards, whether or not they are direct consumers of biomass.  

The tax reduction enters into force on October 1, will be in force until December 31, 2022 and will apply to pellets, briquettes and firewood, ecological substitutes for natural gas from biomass and intended for heating systems, whose prices have increased considerably with the approach of winter. It will provide an estimated savings of 19,4 million to consumers.

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The new boiler has been installed by Bioenergy Ibérica and uses cocoa husks as biofuel to obtain the 12.250 tons of steam per year needed by the chocolate factory located in La Penilla de Cayón, while reducing CO2.100 emissions by XNUMX tons2.

The boiler uses the husk obtained in the cocoa roasting process as biofuel to produce steam and for the roasting process itself. In this way, Nestlé promotes the circular economy in its production processes.

In the press release, Arnau Pi, head of Sustainability at Nestlé Spain, notes that the boiler complements other efficient energy generation processes already existing in the factory.

Nestlé advances towards zero net emissions in its Spanish factories with the entry into operation of the new biomass boiler in the Cantabria chocolate factory. The company has had another biomass boiler at its soluble coffee factory in Girona since 2020, a photovoltaic park in Reus, a sustainable refrigeration system at the Viladrau bottling plant and, in addition, its 10 factories in Spain obtain electricity from renewable sources. renewable.

Bioenergy Ibérica participates in EXPOBIOMASA

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In this third auction, which was held on October 25, 2022, up to 100 MW corresponded to biomass in projects without power restrictions and another 40 MW for facilities with installed power equal to or less than 20 MW. MITECO has finally awarded 146 MW of biomass at a weighted average price of €93,09/MWh, with a maximum of €108,19/MWh and a minimum of €72,38/MWh.

MITECO points out that the prices for electricity produced with biomass are higher than those of other renewables because it is a manageable technology, which can be produced when needed and facilitates the operation of the electrical system due to its synchronous nature. In addition, it has an important added value of job creation, mainly in rural areas, and helps to manage and recover forest and agricultural waste.

The successful bidders in this third renewable energy auction, held on October 25, 2022, were Hunosa, with 50 MW, followed by Desarrollos Renovables Eólicas y Solares (Acciona Energía), with 49,9 MW, and Desarrollos Renovables Abies (Reolum ), with 46,1 MW.

Hunosa will transform the La Pereda thermal plant from coal to 50MW of biomass. The public company maintains that the new plant will maintain current jobs and create at least around 200 new jobs related to forest management and biomass treatment.

The Reolum project consists of a biomass plant with 46,1 MW of power on the old land of the La Robla thermal power plant in León, another facility in a mining region. Company sources assure that the new plant will provide important innovations that will improve both its efficiency and reduce production costs.

Finally, Acciona Energía will build its 49,9 MW biomass plant in the municipality of Logrosán, Cáceres. The company already operates a 15 MW biomass plant in this province, in the town of Miajadas, and another three, one in Briviesca (Burgos) with 16 MW, another in Curtis (A Coruña) with 49,9 MW and a third in Cubillos del Sil (León) of 49,5 MW.

In this call, MITECO has also awarded 31 MW to local photovoltaic solar installations, with power equal to or less than 5 MW, at a price of €53,88/MWh, with a maximum of €62,5/MWh and a minimum of €44,98/MWh

Assessment from the Spanish Biomass Association

From AVEBIOM, it is estimated that the 380 MW planned by the government for the 2020-2025 period could be increased to 700 MW with plants located in the appropriate areas and close to biomass resources, both forest and agricultural: pruning of vineyards, fruit trees, straw and other agrobiomasses.

The association also defends the appropriateness of limiting power below 20 MW, since 50 MW plants require enormous consumption of biomass, of the order of 450.000 tons per year, which requires supplies of biofuel from great distances to the installation and increased competition for the resource.

On the other hand, AVEBIOM estimates that the country could house a power of more than 2.500 MW of electricity fed with the more than 20 million tons of agricultural and forestry biomass available in our country per year.

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The Government of Spain opens a call for direct aid for biomass heat network projects from September 26.

This aid has been endowed with 100 million euros and the subsidized projects must be launched before October 31, 2025.

The construction of new generation plants that exclusively use renewable energy sources and new distribution networks with connections to consumption centers will be subsidized; the expansion or replacement of an existing generation plant with equipment that uses exclusively renewable energy sources, including those that remain unsubstituted; and the expansion of the distribution network and existing connections in facilities that use exclusively renewable energy sources.

They may receive up to 45% for individuals or legal entities that carry out an economic activity for which they offer goods and/or services on the market. Those beneficiaries who do not carry out economic activity can receive up to 70% aid.

The main suppliers of the sector at a national and international level will attend the next edition of EXPOBIOMASA, on May 9, 10 and 11, 2023.

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