Sector
Renewable energies (biomass)
Date of investment
2016
Status
Disinvested
Contact
Red de Calor de Soria (RCS) is a district heating system that uses biomass to provide hot water and heating in the city of Soria, with a peak demand of 80 GWh per year and consuming 30,000 tonnes of biomass per year from forest waste in the region. In 2019, the project won the ASCRI award for venture capital investment in Spain in the category of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) initiatives.
Energy demand for heating and cooling accounts for more than 50% of total energy demand in Europe, with space heating being the main source of heat demand in the residential and tertiary sectors. Currently, the vast majority of demand is met by fossil fuel-based systems (mainly gas and oil boilers), and only 0.2% of demand is met by district heating in Spain (compared to 30% in the Nordic countries).
District heating is a centralised energy generation and supply system that allows the use of biomass as the main fuel, which is often not used in distributed heating systems due to space, price and supply chain constraints.
This district heating project uses biomass and natural gas to supply hot water and heating, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, CO2 emissions and air pollution through the use of gas cleaning systems. The project supports the sustainable management of PEFC-certified Spanish forests, promoting local employment and reducing the incidence of forest fires.
This technology offers residential consumers cost-effective heating options and competitive prices, while reducing dependence on fossil fuels and import needs, benefiting society as a whole.
The project helps replace fossil fuels with local renewable energy sources to provide heating and hot water, reducing annual emissions by 24,100 tonnes of CO2 eq.
Inadequate treatment and conversion of biomass to energy can have negative impacts on pollution prevention and control. However, the project has adequately managed these impacts by installing gas cleaning systems that significantly limit particulate emissions.
