The first Vice-president and Regional Minister of Economy, Industry and Innovation, Francisco Conde, and the Regional Minister for the Rural Environment, José González, held a meeting with representatives of Reganosa, Repsol and Naturgy, accompanied by the general director of Impulsa Galicia, Enyd López.

 

The First Vice-President and Regional Minister of Economy, Industry and Innovation, Francisco Conde, and the Regional Minister for the Rural Environment José González, held a meeting this morning with Reganosa, Repsol and Naturgy, which, together with Impulsa Galicia and the Xunta, are promoting the future circular economy centre for the production of biogas and fertilisers from livestock waste.

According to Conde, this initiative will increase Galicia’s energy autonomy and employment opportunities, especially in rural areas, and demonstrates how public-private collaboration enables the generation and development of proposals that improve Galicia’s industrial capacities.

The project, which will cost 146 million euros in the first phase, stands out for its innovative component, its environmental benefits, its support for rural areas, and for being framed within the challenge of energy transition. The initiative would cover 7% of Galicia’s demand for imported natural gas with biomethane.

In this regard, the economic vice-president of the Xunta highlighted the role played by the company Impulsa Galicia. Together with Altri, this is the second project to be matured and developed under the auspices of this public-private entity created with the function of identifying proposals and consolidating them as viable initiatives.

Thus, the circular economy project is the result of many months of previous work, and the forecast of the promoting partners is to start the basic engineering work next November. This is one of the major proposals with which Galicia is applying for European Next Generation funds, and for this reason, the Xunta hopes that once and for all the Government will show its involvement with this project, which is also one of the projects selected to participate in the calls for proposals of the Just Transition Fund.

For his part, the Regional Minister for the Rural Environment, José González, stressed that this circular economy project, which seeks to transform surplus slurry and other waste into biomethane and organic fertilisers, will guarantee at all times the availability for livestock farmers of the livestock excrement needed to fertilise their land in a sustainable way, as well as the economic viability of their farms.

In his speech, José González specified that the first anaerobic digestion plant to produce renewable gas from surplus bovine, pig and poultry excrement mixed with other waste from the agri-food sector is to be installed in Meirama. In the first phase, five pre-treatment centres associated with this plant will be set up in the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo, taking into account the distribution of Galician farms, with the idea of extending the circular economy project to Ourense and Pontevedra, thus establishing a comprehensive network for the treatment of surplus livestock excrement, bringing the initiative closer to the places where there are livestock farms.

The Regional Minister for the Rural Environment added that the implementation of this initiative would also contribute to compliance with the new European environmental legislation on the protection of agricultural land and effluent control, as well as sustainable nutrition of agricultural land, and would provide a solution to recurring issues in the management and storage of livestock excretions.

The Regional Minister also highlighted the collaboration of the sector in carrying out this initiative, pointing out that he will shortly begin a round of meetings with cooperatives, livestock associations and agricultural organisations to explain the project to them, always seeking the viability of Galician farms.