• The plant, which is already being built in Ólvega (Soria), will come into service in the last quarter of this year.
• The project will allow 38 GWh a year of biomethane to be injected into the natural gas network, which is equivalent to the annual gas consumption of 8,100 households. It will also lead to a reduction of 30,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
• This will be the sixth biomethane plant built in Spain and the second by volume of biomethane produced by waste-to-energy.
• The project will help to create 8 direct and around 20 indirect jobs in its sphere of influence.

The Nortegas Group, through its affiliate Nortegas Green Energy Solutions, along with Biovec, Bioenergética de Navarra, the other Biolvegas founding partners and Oleofat, will bring into operation the first national waste-to-energy biogas plant designed for the direct injection of biomethane in the network, as Spain had only previously reconverted biogas plants.

The plant, which is currently being built in Ólvega (Soria), will come into service in the last quarter of this year. The project will be able to convert 30,00 tonnes of pig slurry and 35,000 tonnes of agri-good waste, industrial waste and waste oils a year.

This plant will use an upgrading process to purify the biogas generated by that waste and thus obtain biomethane, equivalent to natural gas and 100% renewable. Up to 38 GWh of methane a year will thus be injected into the natural gas network, which is equivalent to the annual natural consumption of over 8,100 households. Additionally, and as injecting biomethane in the gas network will reduce fossil natural gas consumption, the plant will lead to 30,000 fewer tons of CO2 emission a year, while providing an optimum solution for managing the waste in a circular economy context.

This will be the sixth biomethane plant built in Spain and the second by volume of biomethane produced by waste-to-energy. The consortium behind the project combines the experience of the founding partners in the design, construction and operating biodigestion plants. Oleofat is contributing its expertise in managing and treating oil waste, and Nortegas its experience in building and operating gas infrastructures, along with its strategic commitment to the development of biomethane in Spain.

Identifying a common interest regarding renewable gases and the circular economy has led to this project, involving an investment of around €6 million. The project will help to create 8 direct and around 20 indirect jobs in its sphere of influence.

This project highlights Nortegas’s commitment to innovation and to the energy transition by means of making the distribution networks available for the development of alternative and sustainable energy sources that contribute to meet the emission reduction and decarbonisation targets.

Javier Contreras, Nortegas’s managing director, stressed that “this project is a major step in the development and implementation of the Nortegas strategic plan in the context of a sustainable energy transition. The process to obtain biomethane is a clear example of the circular economy, as it harnesses the waste that would otherwise generate a high carbon footprint to provide consumers with a source of clean energy by means of the efficient use of gas infrastructures. Furthermore, our participation in this project is allowing us to contribute to social and economic development in its sphere of influence, which fully impacts on the sustainability targets, one of the essential pillars of Nortegas’s strategy”.

Rafael Lavín, Oleofat CEO, explained that: “conducting such a project shows that creating businesses that help to create environmentally friendly alternative energies is feasible and reassuring. Oleofat is a company with experience in waste-to-energy. Thanks to our involvement is this future biogas plant, we wish to help to reduce the carbon footprint and show such projects are compatible with competitiveness, innovation, economic growth and employment”.