Spain can cover all its energy needs from December 3rd until the end of 2020 with biomass

For the fourth year, we celebrate our Bioenergy Day, as have 21 other EU states, highlighting Spain's enormous biomass potential and its strategic contribution to the success of the ongoing energy transition.

EurBioenergy Day took place on November 13, four days earlier than in 2019. Spain could also bring forward the date of its celebration by more than a week, thanks to the positive trend in biomass-fired heating installations, supported by an increase in the availability of sustainable biofuels and by stronger support from the administrations within the framework of the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law.

According to data from the Biomass Observatory, in 2019 almost 10% more biomass-based heating systems (excluding firewood) were installed than the previous year, reaching a total of 357,000 units and 11,570 MW of thermal energy generation capacity . Bioenergy employed more than 10,600 people and generated a turnover exceeding eur .

With the aim of increasing the actual availability of biomass, AVEBIOM has just presented the first draft of its strategic plan for agrobiomass , whose enormous potential remains largely untapped. Developed through the AgroBioHeat project, the document incorporates the vision of numerous stakeholders and aims to be the driving force behind the increased use of this important energy resource in Spain starting in 2021. It was presented at an open online workshop on November 26, which can be viewed again on the association's website.

Award for a biomass guru
As the icing on the cake of this day of celebration, we wanted to give special thanks to Dr. Christian Rakos, current president of the World Bioenergy Association, for his commitment to the dissemination and development of the solid biomass sector for energy uses in Spain during the last 16 years, by awarding him the 2020 Bioenergy Promotion Award .

In a video message, Javier Díaz, president of AVEBIOM, presented the award virtually, highlighting the excellent relationship that has existed between the Association and Rakos since 2004, "a biomass guru who has greatly helped the development of biomass in Spain.".

Christian Rakos emphasized the development of the sector in Spain over the last 20 years and noted that bioenergy will play a very important role in achieving the challenge of replacing all fossil fuels by 2050.