ACCIONA Industrial and IMASA to build and maintain Greenalia biomass plant in Teixeiro, La Coruña

The ACCIONA Industrial and IMASA Ingeniería y Proyectos consortium was awarded the contract to construct, operate and maintain (for 15 years) a 49.9 MW biomass power plant in Teixeiro, La Coruña, promoted by Greenalia Biomass Power Curtis-Teixeiro. Construction on the plant is expected to be completed by late 2019.

The project, awarded by GREENALIA, will require an investment of approximately €110 million. The joint venture between ACCIONA Industrial and IMASA will be responsible for constructing the plant under an EPC contract and operating and maintaining it for 15 years.

It will be the largest forest biomass plant on the Iberian Peninsula and in southern Europe to use eucalyptus wood from pruning and waste.

The project will incorporate the latest technological developments applied to power generation biomass plants. It will also be highly efficient in terms of generation, with low CO2 atmospheric emissions, in accordance with European Commission targets set for 2020. The plant uses dry cooling technology, so it consumes very little water and produces no spillage.

The plant will be constructed on a 103,000 square metre plot of land, with a capacity of 49.9 megawatts (MW), enabling the generation of 324 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year from forest biomass collected from the woodlands of Galicia. The plant will be capable of treating 500,000 tonnes of biomass annually.

This project will contribute to the sustainability of forests and to fire prevention, offering incentives for the collection of small-sized wood waste that is normally rejected for industrial use. Once operational, it will increase the production of energy using renewable sources.

ACCIONA Industrial and IMASA have a great deal of experience in projects of this type. ACCIONA has participated in the construction of biomass plants such as the Sangüesa plant in Navarre, and the Miajadas plant in Cáceres. IMASA, meanwhile, has been present in La Coruña since the 1970s, participating in a variety of biomass projects with Hygroscopic Cycle Technology, implemented at the Vetejar and Agroenergética de Baena plants, both in Córdoba, as well as the EPC for desulphurization and denitrification at the As Pontes Thermal Power Plant.