Spanish green energy company Solarig will spend €780m on a plant for making aviation fuel from agricultural waste in northeast Spain.
When complete in 2026, it will produce 60,000 tonnes a year, enough for 12,000 flights between Madrid and Mallorca.
Built in an industrial park in the municipality of Garray, it will be powered by a 370MW solar farm and a 50MW wind farm, supplemented by a 100MWh-capacity battery.
Solarig chief executive Miguel Ángel Calleja said the plant would help Spain lead the sustainable fuels sector.
He called it a “fully circular approach” because it will recover biogas from agricultural waste and use wind and sun.
Aviation accounts for up to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s expected that a total switch to sustainable fuel could contribute around 65% of the reduction in emissions needed by aviation to reach net zero by 2050.
The new plant will combine two methods of producing : gas-to-liquid, which will produce biomethane from waste, and power-to-liquid, which will combine biogenic carbon dioxide with green hydrogen.
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