Government aims to boost energy production from biomass

The catalan government is looking to ways of turning round the recent decline in biomass energy production in catalonia. a total of 11 projects with a combined production of 90mw are now in the final stages, and now efforts are being made to make them operative as soon as possible to take full advantage of this renewable energy source, where combustible gas is produced from the decay of organic and inorganic material.

added to the 11 projects about to come into service, there are another 11 in an earlier stage of development. among those firms contributing to the initiative are; nufri, comsa emte and abantia, which are major fruit producers and processors, as well as the german electricity company rwe. the energy plan, which the government is now revising, forecasts that up to 50mw of electricity can be produced by combustion of biomass gas by 2015, a figure that may prove to be conservative if the administration can push along projects to fruition faster than originally planned.

the generalitat, the government of catalonia is also pushing forward agreements with owners of large forestry properties and those handling large amounts of waste than can be used to produce energy from biomass with a view to helping them exploit their potential and join in with current biomass energy generation initiatives. the idea behind this is to ensure a regular supply of raw materials at a stable price, at the same time guaranteeing that the plants have enough raw materials to function on at a profitable throughput rate, while aiming to temper both local and ecologist group opposition in some cases. these plants burn off the more noxious gases, producing less harmful combustion products hence leaving the biomass processing operation carbon neutral at most, given the nature of the raw material.

source: el periódico, 5/9/2011