The Council of Ministers has given the green light this Tuesday to a new Royal Decree that regulates various aspects linked to biofuels, bioliquids, and biomass fuels used in energy generation, and that introduces modifications to several royal decrees already in force in this area.
Among the most relevant novelties, the regulation raises the requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for biofuels, bioliquids, and biomass fuels, setting stricter conditions for plants that are already in operation.
In addition, the threshold for nominal thermal power is reduced from 20 megawatts (MW) to 7.5 MW, from which these criteria become mandatory for installations that produce electricity, heating, and cooling from solid biomass.
At the same time, the Royal Decree strengthens sustainability criteria, aligning them with the objectives of biodiversity protection and habitat destruction prevention. In this framework, forest biomass obtained in Spain will meet these criteria as long as it has the necessary forestry permits, given that Spain is considered a low-risk country for these purposes.
The Executive also incorporates into the regulation the so-called cascade use principle, which prioritizes the material use of biomass over its energy destination whenever feasible, with the aim of minimizing the risk of distortion in biomass markets as a raw material.
LIMITATIONS ON FINANCIAL SUPPORT
In economic terms, the decree establishes the prohibition of granting direct financial support for the energy use of industrial roundwood, except in cases where there is no quantitatively and technically capable local industry to take advantage of it. Logs that must be chipped for pest and disease control, as well as those resulting from forest management work aimed at fire prevention, are excluded from this restriction.
Finally, a ban is established on granting new supports, or extending existing ones, for energy production from forest biomass in facilities dedicated exclusively to electricity generation.