The Ence “La Loma” biomass power generation plants, located in Villanueva del Arzobispo (Jaén) and “Enemansa”, whose location is in the Castilian-Manchegan town of Villarta de San Juan, have received the “Zero Waste” environmental certificate. ”Awarded by AENOR to those organizations that carry out efficient management of their waste and are capable of recovering it.
In this way, these two independent facilities for the generation of renewable energy with agroforestry biomass have obtained a recognition that Ence’s cellulose biofactories in Navia and Pontevedra already have, and that only a small group of companies in Spain have.
The AENOR Zero Waste certificate certifies that Ence values all the waste fractions in these plants and prevents them from going to the landfill as their final destination, thanks to a traceability system in waste management that encompasses all the actors involved and that entails an exhaustive process of documentation and monitoring of each one of them.
Through reuse, recycling or recovery, La Loma and Enemansa reintroduced these remains into the value chain, giving them a new life. Both managed to value 100% of their waste in 2020, a milestone even within the Zero Waste certification. In addition, thanks to this management, Ence prevented more than 13,800 tons of waste, mainly from local agriculture, from ending up in the landfill.
The adaptation of the production systems of the plants to minimize waste and reduce the management of some of them has involved an investment of € 400,000 in the case of the La Loma plant, while in Enemansa, it exceeds € 100,000.
Obtaining this certificate is one more example of Ence’s commitment to the Circular Economy, a model that advocates minimizing waste and reusing it. Thus, in its independent biomass power plants, the company uses waste from nearby fields to produce renewable energy, thus preventing its burning, and thus the emission of thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Likewise, the energy use of biomass in the surroundings of Ence’s plants has a high social impact in terms of economic dynamization and employment. According to data from the Renewable Energy Companies Association (APPA), each megawatt installed for biomass supports 30 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
Ence generates renewable electricity in eight independent generation plants: three in Huelva, two in Ciudad Real province, one in Córdoba, one in Mérida and one in Jaén. These are generation plants that feed exclusively on remains of agroforestry origin. To these 253 MW of independent renewable energy generation are also added 112 MW of sustainable and low-emission cogeneration derived from the pulp production process in the Navia and Pontevedra biofactories.
