One of “the most notable barriers” for the development of biogas in Spain is “the little ambition shown in the biogas roadmap in terms of the objectives to be achieved by the year 2030”.
This is how forceful the Spanish Gas Association (Sedigás) is in the Study of biomethane production capacity in Spain, 2023, which was recently presented at the headquarters of the Col·legi d’Enginyers de Catalunya. The report, prepared by PwC and Biovic, sets the national biomethane production potential (already refined biogas) at 163 TWh/year, far from the 10.4 TWh of biogas per year forecast for 2030 in the roadmap. The 163 TWh/year calculated by Sedigás is equivalent to 21% of the gas that was consumed in Spain in 2019 (before the covid and the current energy crisis).
Although Sedigás acknowledges that with the creation of the Biogas roadmap, the first steps are being taken for the progressive development of this energy vector, the association points out that there are still administrative, regulatory, economic and fiscal barriers. Despite these barriers, the approval of the biogas roadmap and the biogas guarantee of origin system have led to the presentation of more than 200 projects under development throughout the country to date. The Generalitat de Catalunya, for its part, plans to present its own plan for biogas this week.
“Biogas has enormous potential that has not been exploited. We are talking about a fuel that can have the same energy uses as natural gas, but given its origin it is much more sustainable and cleaner. The experts believe that it can be a solution to the management of organic waste and, at the same time, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, explained Isabel Tejero, member of the board of Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya and energy director of Bureau Veritas Solutions, in the presentation of the study.
Biogas is obtained from biodegradable organic materials (domestic, industrial, agricultural organic waste, sewage sludge and livestock manure such as slurry), as well as from energy crops. It can be used for the production of electrical and thermal energy or as fuel for vehicles, and it can be injected directly into the natural gas network if it is previously refined to be converted into biomethane.
Joan Batalla Bejerano, president of Sedigás, explained that the report prepared by PwC and Biovic has identified a potential of 2,326 biomethane production plants in the country as a whole (248 in Catalonia), which would represent an investment of 40,495 million euros (3,616 million in Catalonia) and would create 21,736 direct jobs linked to the operation and maintenance of the plants (2,128 jobs in Catalonia). Sedigás’s calculations place Spain as one of the three European Union countries with the greatest potential for developing this renewable gas and Catalonia as the fifth autonomous community with the greatest potential.
The reality, however, is different: “There is talk of a potential of 250 plants in Catalonia, but now there are only five in all of Spain that inject biomethane into the network, while in Germany there are 730,” said Tejero. This reality is especially surprising considering that it is a proven, price-competitive technology that helps reduce dependence on gas of fossil origin and greenhouse gas emissions, creates employment in rural areas, and also provides a solution to the problem of organic waste.
