Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Juanjo Mayans
University of Valencia, Spain
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Serra is a small mountain town of 3,000 inhabitants in the Region of Valencia on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The municipality covers an area of 5,730 hectares, with 95% of this territory lying within the Sierra Calderona Natural Park and 85% being forest. Due to its location in the heart of a Natural Park, Serra has natural resources that together with its location close to Valencia, grant it a privileged position from which to boost agricultural and forestry activities in line with others related to tourism and recreation, as a new model of socio-economic development. Since 2010 the biomass management project in order to produce solid fuel to heat municipal buildings, has applied these principles with very positive results. The first step was turning local administration into a biomass fuel consumer, by replacing the traditional heat sources with biomass boilers systems in the Municipal Nursery, Public School and Town Hall buildings, with an overall power of 250 kW. The municipality had also to convert green waste into an energetically usable fuel at the lowest possible cost, first producing wood chips and then producing wood pellets. The fuel production process has been improved recently by the acquisition of an industrial pellet plant with a total capacity production of 800-1.000 ton of wood pellets per year, which surplus production is sold in the nearby markets. In summary, the project aims to close a cycle of circular economy based on the re-use of green waste as energy that permits the generation of savings which are redirected towards job creation, this allows the incorporation of new forestry and agricultural waste, which helps to protect against forest fires and to conserve the area��?s natural heritage. This in turn allows more tourism activities in the area, which drives yet more employment generation and ultimately socio-economic growth.
Email: juanjo.mayans9@gmail.com