Avebiom welcomes the increase in operating hours for biomass facilities approved in the Parameters Order

Last Friday, February 28, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published Order TED/171/2020, of February 24, which updates the remuneration parameters for renewable energy, cogeneration, and waste installations for application during the remuneration period that began on January 1, 2020. From now on, the limit of production hours eligible for remuneration is extended to 7,500 hours per year, favoring reasonable profitability in the longer term.

This Order rectifies a conceptual error contained in Law 24/2013 which limited, without a well-founded basis, the maximum operating time with the right to remuneration of electricity generation plants from biomass to 6,500 hours per year.

Biomass-fired power generation facilities are generally capable of achieving annual availability of close to 8000 hours, so the limitation that is now being corrected represented a clear inefficiency in the use of existing infrastructure.

On the other hand, the increased availability will also boost the necessary valorization of agricultural and forestry by-products, which we estimate will lead to an annual increase in agricultural income of more than 50 million eurover the next 20 years.

For the calculation we have assumed that the increase in biomass consumption is covered by 60% primary biomass (b6) and 40% secondary biomass (b8) and we apply the average yields and costs published by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.

In addition to biomass-fueled electricity generators, the forestry sector also stands to benefit from an increase in sustainable forest harvesting, as does society as a whole, since less biomass in the forest means fewer and less virulent forest fires if they do occur.

The increase in production hours will also contribute to reducing CO2 emissions from the energy sector and improving the manageability of the electricity grid in a sustainable way and with the support of renewable energy.