The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has definitively resolved the first call for grants for projects of unique biogas facilities. The 81 proposals with the best valuation will receive incentives worth 76.5 million euros from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, corresponding to a projected investment of 475.5 million euros and a power to be installed of 188.3 MW. Of the projects selected, 6 correspond to Navarre and will receive funds in the amount of 4,527,749 euros.
The aid programme, managed by the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), under the auspices of MITECO, has selected biogas production initiatives and their use, either for thermal or electrical use, in high-efficiency cogeneration or for purification until biomethane is obtained for energy use. The majority of the projects benefiting from these grants combine several of these typologies and a good number of them also incorporate the treatment and conversion of the final digest as fertilizer.
From waste to resource
The selected proposals - in competitive competition - are based on the anaerobic treatment of organic matter deposited in landfills, urban sewage sludge (WWTP), the use and recovery of agricultural waste, livestock slurry, remains of forestry activity or the agri-food industry, among other varied areas of origin. In all cases, the starting raw material goes from waste to resource, incorporating in the process greater added value and generating business activity and local employment.
In this way, the deployment of biogas helps to establish population, structuring the territory and giving impetus to the economic development of rural areas. The possibility of generating biogas in a delocalized way helps to avoid rural depopulation and also poses synergies with the needs of economic reactivation of the areas in the process of fair transition.
Advantages of biogas
Gases of renewable origin are part of the solution to achieve climate neutrality in 2050 and contribute to meeting the emission reduction and penetration targets for renewable energies proposed for Spain in 2030, included in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (PNIEC). In areas such as transport, biogas will help Spain reach the PNIEC target of 28% renewable energy in the sector.
Likewise, biomethane produced from biogas can gradually displace natural gas of fossil origin, especially in energy-intensive or hardly electrifiable applications such as heavy transport or the thermal energy-intensive industry, which will reduce our country’s energy dependence and improve the security of energy supply.
Roadmap
In order to identify all these challenges and opportunities in Spain, the Council of Ministers approved in March 2022 the Biogas Roadmap, which plans to multiply by 3.8 the current production of biogas until 2030, strengthen the circular economy and fix population in rural areas, thanks to the growth of the business value chain.
These aids are framed within the framework of Component 7: ‘Deployment and integration of renewable energies’ of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and, in particular, in its Investment 1: ‘Development of innovative renewable energies, integrated in the building and production processes’. In addition, this call is one of the measures (Measure 4) contemplated in the PERTE-ERHA of Renewable Energies, Renewable Hydrogen and Storage, which will mobilize an investment of more than 16.3 billion to develop technology, knowledge, industrial capacities and new business models in the field of clean energies.