Spain: Biogas and biomass news

Biogas plant in the Canary Islands

The first pilot plant for biogas production in the Canary Islands has just been inaugurated in a farm of 500 pigs in the town of Agüimes. The plant, which is part of the EU Interreg Enermac’s programme, has a capacity of 3,400 liters of slurry per day. It will produce annual savings of 44,700 euros in electricity and waste management. To this amount, 2,890 euros per year would be added in profits from water regeneration and the sale of fertilizer.

This plant will also enable conclusive results to be obtained on key aspects in order to export the model to other livestock species; this is the sector which generates the largest volume of waste (over 400 000 tons per year) in the Canary Islands.

Spain leads Europe in GHG emissions from poor manure management

The Long-Term Decarbonisation Strategy 2050, which is being prepared by the government, compares for the first time the situation in Spain with its European neighbors in terms of the responsibility of livestock farming for climate change. According to the Spanish government's own data, Spain is the fourth country in Europe with the highest emissions from livestock farming, preceded only by France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It should be borne in mind that these three countries have a much higher population and GDP than Spain, and, worse still, Spain is in first place in terms of emissions from manure.

The draft Strategy also shows that, while emissions from the livestock sector are stabilizing in Europe, in Spain they have not stopped growing. According to the data provided, the agricultural sector is already responsible for 12% of emissions in Spain, with livestock farming being responsible for 67% of these. According to Greenpeace, this Spanish leadership derives from a model of industrial livestock farming and, in particular, from the exponential growth of mega-hog farms.

For Luis Ferreirim, head of agriculture for Greenpeace Spain, "without a doubt, we are heading straight for disaster, but the agricultural sector, and in particular the livestock sector, continues to be the great forgotten one in climate policies". He adds that "the solution for the livestock sector is provided by the draft itself: reducing the number of animals".

At the beginning of September, Greenpeace, Ecologistas en Acción and Oxfam Intermón announced a lawsuit against the Spanish government for inactivity in the face of climate change, in the wake of Stichting Urgenda.

Source energias-renovables.com