Naturgy will supply Inditex with all the renewable gas produced at the Bens WWTP facilities in A Coruña. In all, there will be 5.1 GWh of biomethane, a gas with qualities equivalent to those of natural gas, obtained from the treatment of 130,000 m3 of wastewater from homes and industries in the metropolitan area of this Galician city.
The biomethane will be certified under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) scheme and will allow Inditex to continue to make progress in emissions reduction and using energy sources with a lower impact.
The Bens WWTP will be in charge of biomethane production, while Naturgy will clean and purify the gas and deliver it to Inditex through its gas distribution network. This initiative will allow the textile group to cover 75% of the natural gas consumption of its facilities in Arteixo and Laracha.
The profits generated through this agreement will be reinvested in R&D&I projects linked to renewable gases and the circular economy at the Bens WWTP facilities.
A Coruña’s mayor, Inés Rey, pointed out that the City Council has been working to obtain clean energy through waste management for years. “We’re pioneers in Spain with this project, which demonstrates that it’s also possible to promote cutting-edge technologies at the local level to reduce energy dependence and, above all, to take advantage of resources to generate energy in the most sustainable way. This is an agreement that opens a path, and I hope it will serve as an example to take advantage of all the possibilities of this new technology”, she said.
The City Council has been behind the project to obtain biomethane from the outset but it is also a pioneer in waste management to obtain energy, with Nostián as the most visible example.
Inditex’s sustainability director, Javier Losada, pointed out that “innovation and collaboration are essential in the promotion of alternative energy sources. This project shows how new technological developments allow us to take advantage of waste and turn it into new resources, moving towards a circular economy”.
“This agreement is an important milestone that illustrates the potential of biomethane as a strategic energy vector to drive industrial decarbonisation in an efficient manner”, said María Higueras, Naturgy’s Industrial Market sales director.
“To address the green transition we need to be able to transform the energy value chain and drive the circular economy. Through this agreement, we’re able to promote innovation to give waste a second life in the decarbonisation process”, added Jesús Chapado, Naturgy’s director of innovation.
Biomethane is an energy alternative to fossil fuels that is increasingly in demand, and it is already used in many European countries by means of its injection into the natural gas grid for use in homes and industries or as a vehicle fuel. According to a recent study by Sedigás and PwC, Spain has the potential to produce 163 TWh of this renewable gas, equivalent to 45% of the country’s gas demand.
Naturgy, leader in renewable gas
Naturgy aims to be the leading company in promoting renewable gases in Spain, both in the production and distribution of biomethane in Spain in the short term, and in the development of hydrogen as an energy vector that will have a significant impact on the energy mix in the medium term. The company is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity offered by renewable gases to move towards decarbonisation and is ready to deploy significant investments and resources in this business.
Naturgy already manages more than 50 biomethane projects at different stages of development and it has two of its own production plants in operation, one at the Bens WWTP (A Coruña) and the other in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona). In the coming months, a third will be added to these, which is currently in the final phase of construction and located at the Porgaporcs livestock farm in Vila-Sana (Lleida), while three more are in the pipeline in Torrefarrera (Lleida), Utiel (Valencia) and Utrera (Seville).
In addition, Naturgy recently signed an agreement to acquire the entire biomethane production of the Bioenergía Vallés Oriental (BioVO) project, located in the Barcelona province municipality of Granollers, as well as the entire production of the first BioLNG project in Spain to promote the decarbonisation of transport.