Spain's Castro Gonzalo Plans 4.97 MW Photovoltaic-Powered Biogas Plant

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning of the Government of Castile and León is conducting a public consultation on a biogas plant project in the municipality of Castro Gonzalo, Zamora province, concerning the environmental permit application and environmental impact study. The project is promoted by Apotorma, a company belonging to the ID Energy Group based in the La Mancha region, which specializes in the renewable energy sector.

The project is positioned as an integrated waste management facility with production capacity, whose core task is to convert suitable waste from agriculture, livestock farming, and the agri-food industry into biomethane. Its industrial process includes anaerobic digestion of organic substrates, followed by phase separation of the digestate. This process is expected to produce 98,363 tons of solid digestate and 226,734 tons of liquid digestate annually. Approximately 83,950 tons per year of the liquid fraction will be recirculated back into the process, while the remaining approximately 142,784 tons per year will be stored for transport. To this end, the project plans to build dedicated storage workshops and tanks for these two by-products.

To ensure the facility's electricity supply, a photovoltaic power plant is integrated on the same site. This plant covers 6.63 hectares, with a peak installed capacity of 4,973 kWp and a rated capacity of 4,227 kW. The plant will install 7,207 photovoltaic modules from the Chinese brand Trina Solar, model TSM-NEG21C.20, with a maximum power range of 660 to 700 watts per module and a conversion efficiency of 22% to 23%; it will be equipped with 15 Huawei SUN 330 KTL string inverters; and will build 4 transformer centers, each with a capacity of 1,100 kVA. The module support structure is manufactured by Axial, based in Valencia, using a fixed mounting system with a 20-degree tilt angle, and foundations using direct pile driving with high-strength steel S355JR profiles.

The total estimated investment for this biomethane production facility in Castro Gonzalo is 9.8 million euros, and once operational, it is expected to create 5 direct jobs and 10 indirect jobs.