Ence is committed to olive pomace for the generation of sustainable energy

Ence has as one of the axes of its energy strategy the growth in generation of renewable energy with biomass. The company is committed to collaborating significantly in the evolution of the national energy model towards a sustainable and stable electricity supply system with great growth potential in Spain.

Biomass is one of the best alternatives to fossil fuels due to the multiple social and environmental advantages that it entails. It is, in the same way, the only manageable renewable technology, together with hydraulic technology, capable of producing energy with renewable resources, guaranteeing the stability of the electricity supply by not depending on meteorological factors.

Ence’s power plants use different varieties of biomass, among which is marc, the rest of agricultural origin, from the olive tree, for energy production. This is a material whose management is complex and represents a significant environmental challenge, so Ence’s solution for its recovery has been very well received by the sector as a response to this challenge. Throughout 2020, Ence has mobilized nearly 370,000 tons of pomace for its energy use.

Ence is committed to the sustainability of biomass through a decalogue promoted and self-imposed by the company itself. A pioneering initiative, launched in 2017, through which the company can guarantee that the biomass it uses is effectively sustainable. In this same sense, this year Ence was the first European company to certify the sustainability of its biomass through the Sure verification scheme.

It should be noted that the technology to produce electrical energy with biomass is based on a production process in which practically all of the waste used is sent to recovery in other uses and processes, staying within a circular economy cycle.

In addition to these environmental advantages, biomass is a renewable, local and especially abundant resource in Spain. The biomass remains that Ence uses in its process are produced as a result of agricultural and forestry activities, which are very important sectors for economic revitalization and employment in rural areas. In this way, it collaborates in reverting the depopulation -fixing the population in “Empty Spain” -, avoiding uncontrolled burning and reducing the risk of fires.

Generating energy with biomass reduces the national dependence on fossil fuels, which are more expensive and have a greater environmental impact. It is, therefore, an important technology to achieve the necessary decarbonisation of the Spanish energy model, and a key sector for this transition to be fair thanks to the social advantages that its development implies.

With the conviction of providing society with an essential service and of collaborating in the fulfillment of the national challenges in the 2030 Agenda, Ence generates renewable electricity in eight independent production plants: three in Huelva, two in the province of Ciudad Real, one in Córdoba, one in Mérida and one in Jaén. They are generation plants that feed on biomass of agroforestry origin, and in the case of one of the Puertollano plants, solar energy. In total, 266 MW of independent renewable energy generation to which are added 112 MW derived from the pulp production process in its Navia and Pontevedra biofactories, with which these two facilities are self-sufficient with renewable energy