Ence’s ten independent renewable energy plants have supplied enough electricity to the general grid for the needs of almost 566,000 homes since the Alarm State was decreed and confinement and prevention measures against Covid-19 began. There have been more than 254,000 MWh of energy that, in addition to contributing to maintaining an essential service for the population, have led to society saving more than 21,800 tons of oil equivalent.
Ence, in addition to the energy it produces thanks to the heat and by-products of the cellulose process in its two bio-factories in Potevedra and Navia, generates energy in 10 independent plants: 8 of agroforestry biomass, 1 of cogeneration and one more of thermosolar energy. These ten plants together add an installed capacity of 316 renewable MW capable of producing enough energy each year to supply the needs of more than 380,000 people (according to national per capita electricity consumption), and save society almost 177,000 tons of oil equivalent .
To these important social and environmental benefits, we must add the one derived from the valorization of agricultural and forest biomass that Ence plants use as boiler fuel. It serves as an example that most of the biomass consumed by Ence so far this year came from agricultural activities around its plants. In total, almost 300,000 tons of biomass coming, mainly, from vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees, and that otherwise would have been burned in the same field, wasting their energy capacity and assuming a high environmental impact and fire risk.
Biomass stands out, also, as it is renewable energy with a greater social impact in job creation, a fact that the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA) calculates in 30 jobs, between direct and indirect, for each installed MW , thus collaborating in the important fixation of the population in rural areas.
The company continues to bet on growth in renewable energy within its strategic plan, committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and in parallel to the goals established at the national and international level to fight against climate change. Ence wants to collaborate significantly with Spain and the European Union to achieve that by 2030 32% of community energy is renewable, a European objective that the crisis caused by the pandemic, far from endangering, should make it a priority.
