Alcalá to get Europe’s first
solar-biomass heating plant
Alcalá de Henares in the Madrid
regional community is slated to
become the first city in Europe to
provide heating to its businesses
and citizens from renewable
energy generated from a hybrid
high temperature solar thermal
and biomass facility. Construction
on the hybrid facility of Alcalá
District Heating (ADH) is slated
to begin next year at a total
cost of 40 million over three
years and when completed will
provide solar-biomass heating
to more than 9,000 homes, as
well as businesses, schools and
universities and government
buildings. The project will include
the largest distribution network
for heating and hot water in
Spain, generated from a hybrid
20 MW forest biomass plant and
5 MW high-temperature solar
thermal facility to be located
three kilometers outside Alcalá.
According to ADH’s CEO Teo
López, the plant will eventually
be able to supply hot water to half
the city’s population. For full story
see: Progressive Spain
Benitatxell installs a school
composter
The Poble Nou de Benitatxell is
installing a composter in the school
to raise awareness among students
of the importance of recycling
organic matter. With it, Santa
María Magdalena schoolchildren
will be able to convert 40% of the
waste generated in the dining
room into fertilizer that will pay
for ecological school gardens.
The composter has been installed
together with an explanatory and
educational panel of the recycling
process. The project is part of
the educational actions and the
promotion of ecology carried out
by the Department of Education.