Acciona Energy commented that the plant will generate 120 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of 50,000 homes in the Spanish region of Castilla y Leon. The plant will burn around 100,000 tonnes of straw a year, most of which will come from the Burgos and Palencia provinces.
Construction on the plant is expected to begin in October 2007 and it is hoped that the facility will enter commercial service by the second half of 2009. The biomass plant at Briviesca will be the first in the region of Castilla y Leon exclusively dedicated to the production of electricity from agricultural waste products such as straw.
Acciona Energy has said that it will have a majority holding in the development company for the project. As well as Ente Regional de la Energia de Castilla y Leon (EREN), Acciona Energy expects that other regional companies and institutions will also be involved in the project
The new straw-fired biomass plant will add to Acciona Energy’s existing plant in the town of Sanguesa in Navarre, northern Spain. The 25MW capacity plant produced 204 million kilowatt-hours of electric power in 2006.
