Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Biometering plants in Navarra: all reflections are not clean energy

Zarata mediatikoz beteriko garai nahasiotan, merkatu logiketatik urrun eta irakurleengandik gertu dagoen kazetaritza beharrezkoa dela uste baduzu, ARGIA bultzatzera animatu nahi zaitugu. Geroz eta gehiago gara, jarrai dezagun txikitik eragiten.

Recently, biometering plants are increasing in Navarra. Thus, in addition to the facilities of Biomendi in Mendigorría, HTN in Caparroso and E-Copreci in Cabanillas, new plants have been announced in Imotz, Lerín and Valtierra and the existing one in Cabanillas will be expanded.

Most of these plants are located next to large livestock farms. Theoretically, with the objective of decomposing organic matter produced by livestock and producing biogas, mainly to generate electricity and pour into the electric grid. This process also generates heat and is generally reused in the facilities themselves. Meanwhile, the final residue resulting from this process, digestate, can be applied as an amendment to soils. This presentation is unbeatable: an excellent example of circular economy and green alternative, renewable energy production, which avoids problems in waste management...

However, it is difficult to objectively assess the suitability of these plants without taking into account the context in which they are implemented and their consequences. Because not all reflexes are clean energy. It is impossible to speak of biomethanization in Navarra, without taking into account the dynamics and the constellation of conflicts that this has generated: extension of macro-farms and extension of the hyperintensive livestock model, generation of large quantity of organic waste, negative impact on fertile soils, etc. In a situation like this, the installation of biometering plants, linked to industrial livestock, would coincide with the so-called capitalism of ruin: those who promote this type of project seek an added benefit from the problems and disasters they generate.

To present the development of industrial livestock in Navarra in the last decades, one fact: Between 1988 and 2022, cattle grew by 41.91% and pigs by 271.21%. At the same time, the population of Navarra has increased by 29.46%. This shows us that an export-oriented livestock model has been imposed, not on domestic consumption, which has led to a chain of negative effects such as the disappearance of family farms, the concentration of animals, the excessive increase of organic waste, the urgent need to eliminate them, the intensive use of cleaning water... All this generates waste that is difficult to compost, which leads to pollution of water resources, as we are seeing in the Ultzama River basin or in Villafranca and Marcilla.

Facilitating or not adequately controlling the installation of biometering plants is feeding the expansion of macro-farms. A strategic framework such as the primary sector is mortgaged, territory unbalanced and new speculative bubbles are fed

The year 2007 is crucial. The government of Rodríguez Zapatero approved Royal Decree 661/2007 establishing a remuneration framework to promote the profitability and dissemination of renewables. Considering methane production as a renewable energy, large livestock enterprises saw the possibility of introducing bio-metering plants for the production of biogas with slurry, a high-subsidy energy. A good way to extend activity and benefits. This process, however, was not left out of the crisis, as the regulations that reduced premiums for energy generation were later amended. It recalls the failure of the Bioenergy of Ultzama, plagued by irregularities and which suffered so much from the City of Ultzama.

We are currently in a situation similar to that which occurred in the first years of 2000, at the beginning of a new bubble of renewables. Companies have unchecked the construction of new infrastructures in the heat of energy planning and their financial support. And biometering isn't out, as you can see.

Biometering plants are presented as solutions, although in their shadow there is only one business opportunity to extend the life cycle of products. As proof of this, it is sufficient to note that in Navarre there are those who, taking advantage of a legal vacuum, are using biometering to treat not only their own purines, but all kinds of non-toxic organic industrial waste. A paradigmatic case we have in the biometering plant of Mendigorría: In 2020, in the last year with available data, in addition to the treatment of own pig slurry, there were 31,319 tons of industrial waste from Navarra and 37,389 tons from other autonomous communities, mainly from the CAPV and Cantabria. And the case of Mendigorría is no exception.

The integration of biometering plants into livestock farms in Navarra is an unacceptable social and environmental cost. It responds to a crazy wheel: biometering responds to the serious problem of the accumulation of organic waste generated by industrial livestock. However, this type of business is profitable only because it manages waste from other industries and is charged for it. This causes an increase in the amount of spontaneously large purines that should be deposited in the soils. In addition, the pollutants emitted along with them are increasing and the transport of waste from hundreds of kilometres is also increasing.

Therefore, this model does not respond to the needs of the livestock sector, but rather to the large facilities. Nor to sustainable local development, which removes family farms. Nor does it concern water safety, as it pollutes soils and aquifers with nitrates. Nor the need to keep soil nutrients healthy, to pour a digestate that mixes industrial waste and heavy metals.

As we said at the beginning, the situation is far from encouraging. The announcement of new bio-metering plants has been made in conjunction with new applications for the installation or extension of macro-farms. From November 2021 to August 2023, a minimum of 16 new intensive livestock facilities or extensions involving 60,899 pigs and 5,537 additional cows have been requested.

In view of this, the new Government of Navarra has the opportunity to direct the policies it has carried out to date and which have yielded such poor results. Facilitating or not adequately controlling the installation of biometering plants is feeding the expansion of macro-farms. In this sense, a strategic framework such as the primary sector is mortgaged, the territory is unbalanced and new speculative bubbles are fed. At the same time, it should give strong support to extensive livestock farming, the only sustainable alternative to industrialised livestock production, capable of contributing to other challenges such as combating rural depopulation and the climate crisis. But that requires will. This has not been proven so far.

Mikel Saralegi and Jesús Arbizu (Txurio), members of the Subai Erakuntza Foundation

Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora

ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.


You are interested in the channel: Irakurleen gutunak
2025-02-26 | Elixabet Etchandy
Martxoaren 8ko, emazte langileak lehen lerrora!

Martxoaren 8a hurbiltzen ari zaigu, eta urtero bezala, instituzioek haien diskurtsoak berdintasun politika eta feminismoz josten dituzte, eta enpresek borroka egun hau “emazteen egunera” murrizten dute, emakumeei bideratutako merkatu estereotipatu oso bati bidea... [+]


Izan, badira salbuespen legeak, bai horixe!

Sare Herritarrak antolatuta, pasa den urtarrilaren 11n Bilboko kaleak bete zituen manifestazio jendetsuaren ondoren, berriz sortu da eztabaida, euskal presoei salbuespen legeriarik aplikatzen ote zaion. Gure iritzia azaltzen saiatuko gara.

Espetxe politikan aldaketa nabarmena... [+]


Zedarriak, armagintza, zoru etikoa eta langileok

Duela gutxi think tank izateko jaioa omen den Zedarriak bere 6. txostena aurkeztu zuen. Beren web orrialdean azaltzen dutenaren arabera, zedarriak ebidentea ez den bidea topatzeko erreferentziak dira. Hots, hiru probintzietako jendarteari bidea markatzeko ekimena. Agerraldi... [+]


We are many, come with us to the Basque public school

The time has come for us to enrol in schools in the Basque Country for the 2025-26 academic year, and in many homes the youngest of the household will take a new step soon, in September, which is schooling. Proud of the Basque Public School The members of Topagune are firmly... [+]


Quotas in schools

Since the adoption of the new Education Law for Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, we are hearing/reading again and again that education will be free from now on. We have listened to different actors, including the Department of Education, and in the interviews we offer to the media,... [+]


2025-02-20 | Manex Gurrutxaga
EH About the Internal Congress of Reunidos: The Road to Definitive Integration

At the beginning of the month he did III. Congress in Pamplona. It is said to be the “ordinary congress” that serves to draw “non-ordinary conclusions”, or at least that is how they have received Zutunik in the paper, proposed by the leadership and unanimously approved... [+]


And here we are again, religion in school

On February 3rd, the time has begun to pre-enroll our children and young people in schools, and as every year we would like to remind you why we do not think it is a good idea to enroll them in religion. Last year we finished the article saying that “many of you will be... [+]


Reflections on the use of screens

From the Association of Parents of the Instituto Arratia Small Tram we want to encourage reflection on the use of screens in the learning community.

Lately there is a lot of concern about the impact of screens on children and adolescents. This responsibility extends from... [+]


Guggenheim Urdaibai: who listens to whom and for what?

In 2021 we began to hear the first echoes of the Guggenheim Urdaibai project. The then General Manager Unai Rementeria told us that it would be done yes or yes. To reinforce his claims, he left 40 million euros “shielded” by the time the museums were built. There it is!... [+]


In defense of Labraza
"(The purpose of the Oion Plenary) is clear, to legitimize by law the energy megaprojects with significant irregularities in the processing"

Last Wednesday we had a hard and unpleasant day, not only for Labraza, but also for all the towns where we are threatened by a wind,... [+]


Just as we experienced the flourishing of the Basque Country with the help of the artists, so that this time, taking advantage of their impulses, we continue to make our way together giving the necessary support to the Basque political prisoners, exiles and deportees

The... [+]


Reflecting on the present of yesterday’s philosophers

Epistemology, or theory of knowledge, is one of the main areas of philosophy, and throughout history there have been important debates about the limits and bases of our knowledge. Within this we find two powerful corridors that propose different ways of accessing knowledge: The... [+]


Institutional responsibility for the protection of children

We learned this week that the Court of Getxo has closed the case of 4-year-old children from the Europa School. This leads us to ask: are the judicial, police, etc. authorities prepared to respond to the children’s requests? Are our children really protected when they are... [+]


Statement of the Basque Committee of the EITB
With this letter, the Basque Committee of the EITB and the EITB bodies that underwrite it wish to express their concern and rejection of the selection processes that have been put in place in recent months for the management positions of the EITB, since the demand for knowledge... [+]

From the Caldereros: A blackface in San Sebastian?

I don't want my daughter disguising herself as a Gypsy in the caldereros. I don’t want Gypsy children at my daughter’s school to dress up as Gypsies in caldereros. Because being a gypsy is not a disguise. Because being a gypsy is not a party that takes place once a year, with... [+]


Eguneraketa berriak daude