Sabando celebrates 10 years with a collective heating system biomass based on organic, cheap and ecological matter it is still an exception in Spain, but these systems help decarbonize rural areas with forests or agricultural residues.
For ten years, the residents of a small town in the Alava mountains have been heating themselves in winter and having hot water all year round without having to worry about the price of gas or diesel. And they have one of them first biomass community heating systems installed in Spain.
The mayor, Ángel Marcos Pérez de Arrilucea, says that before deciding on this system, the fifty residents of this district of the municipality of Maeztu had two alternatives: either they paid an annual bill of about 2,500 euros for diesel or gas, or they would have to go to the mountains to cut the twelve tons of wood that a house also uses per year. “That was going to take a lot of time and effort, especially for neighbors of a certain age,” he explains.
The initial investment in the biomass system was the biggest obstacle
Faced with this situation, the residents of the city have made the calculations and seen that, with the system of biomass, which they had heard about, but in very small installations they could save between 40% and 60% of those annual costs on gas or diesel. At the same time, they could practically reduce firewood consumption by half. “We were under construction and we had raised the two streets of the city for other canalization, so we decided to take advantage of the moment and move forward,” says the mayor of Sabando.
They studied some of the few facilities of this type that exist in Spain and saw that it was feasible. They went to work, but came across the important costs it entailed for such a small town, as it amounted to well over half a million euros.
“Fortunately, the Basque government and the provincial council of Álava subsidized most of the investment,” Pérez de Arrilucea explains. apply for a loan of 90,000 euros, to be paid off in 10 years, which we just did. Gradually, however, another problem arose: only 16 of the 40 homes decided to take the step, although when the system started working, 8 more were added.
Benefit from forest biomass
The mayor himself explains it to us how the entire collective heating system works. “We need about 350 tons of wood per year. So here we have a thousand hectares of communal forests At the end of spring we hire a company to cut down the treesactually beech trees, the provincial forest ranger tells us,” he says.
A task with added value, because according to the mayor ‘it tends to be the densest parts of the forest that are exposed in this way’. is cleaned and protected against fire hazards«. The next step is chop the wood into chips of about three centimeterssomething that another company takes care of.
Then you have to dry it. This takes place in the summer on the sports field and all neighbors participate. “This is an important advantage that this system has offered us since By doing it together, relations with the neighborhood have improved«, adds Pérez de Arrilucea.
Two community boilers with biomass
When the material is dry, it is moved to the building where the two boilers are located. From wall to wall, the nozzles (elements that push water out of the pipes under pressure) feed these to heat a 5,000 liter water tank. From this moment on, the water comes out through a pipe that runs through the two streets, about 500 meters in total, at 80 degrees and returns at 70 degrees. “It hardly loses temperature,” says the mayor, “which shows its efficiency.”
However, the system does not deliver water directly to every home. “If this were the case,” the mayor warns, “any failure in one house would have consequences for the entire system.” In this situation a heat exchanger transfers heat to the water in any homewhich in turn has a 200 liter hot water tank.
This is useful “in case the system needs to stop at any time for boiler maintenance or cleaning, which we do in the summer,” he explains. The The energy consumption of each neighbor is billed at 0.025 euros per kilowattwhich is between 600 and 1,000 euros per year and includes the costs of firewood, electricity for the boilers and water pumps and their maintenance.
Neighbors are happy with the biomass boilers
Enrique Elizondo is one of the neighbors of this special town. He is happy with the community heating system biomass. ‘The bill is half that of the diesel boiler, which is still a fossil fuel with all that entails. Regarding the issue of firewood, at my age I don’t see myself going to the mountains for cutting anymore, which is a lot for winter,” he says.
Enrique assures that the comfort of the system is also something eventually captivated the most reluctant neighbors. This neighbor explains that most already have heating and hot water, and if they don’t it is because they are second homes or private businesses.
“I don’t know if it has anything to do with it, but since we have this system there are seven more children in the city,” says Pérez de Arrilucea excitedly, who has no doubts about it. The improvements in habitability have led to several young couples staying put in Sabando. “The city houses are large and it costs a lot to heat them, but this way we make them comfortable at a low price,” defends the mayor.
In this town the neighbors are happy, they think, because they can enjoy themselves without the inconvenience of the harsh winter of the Alava Mountains. Moreover, through this line of energy saving, interest in the experiences of this rural town has also reached other nearby towns.
In to wealthanother Alava council of similar size (60 homes), has already done this did a study and visited the famous city to see how it works on sight, as well as knowing the neighbors’ opinions. At this point, the residents have already conceived of the project and are looking for financing.
But this idea saves money for the residents of Sabando It has also crossed the borders of the Basque Country, as the mayor has taken part in several explanatory talks in small towns in Soria and Ávila.