The Ministry of Ecological Transition has authorised the change from fuel oil to diesel in the two diesel units at the Eivissa thermal power station, taking another step forward in the process of decarbonising the Balearic Islands.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition has authorised Endesa to switch from fuel oil to diesel in the Burmeister & Wain engines (BW8 and BW9) at the Eivissa thermal power plant, each of 14.5 MW, with a total power of 29 MW, as well as limiting their operation to a maximum of 1,500 hours per year. These facts put an end to the use of this fuel to produce electricity in the Balearic Islands, thus fulfilling one of the conditions approved by the Environment Commission of the Balearic Islands to approve the modification of the integrated environmental authorisation (AAI) to adapt it to European regulations.
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Today, the vice-president and councillor for Energy Transition and Productive Sectors, Juan Pedro Yllanes; the president of the Eivissa Council, Vicent Marí Torres; the mayor of Eivissa, Rafael Ruiz González; the general manager of Endesa in the Balearic Islands, Martí Ribas; the director of UPT Baleares de Gas y Electricidad Generación, Antoni Cantarellas, and the director of the Eivissa power station, Ricardo Gil, visited the Endesa power station in Eivissa to mark this conversion and the change of fuel for the two engines, which were the only ones at the Eivissa power station that until now ran on fuel oil.
In the words of Vice President Yllanes, “with this action, we are taking another step forward in the decarbonisation of the Balearic Islands and also in the objectives that Eivissa has set for the year 2030. We continue to apply measures that improve people’s quality of life and, therefore, improve their health. With this step, we will stop emitting nitrogen dioxide, which will improve Eivissa’s air quality. Decarbonisation and health go hand in hand. We are also aware that we must continue to make progress in reducing the operation of the thermal power plant and eliminating all fossil fuels from its operation. And this means, yes or yes, replacing them with renewable energy sources and zero emissions. The Government has a defined strategy to reach the established objectives; in fact, we want to reach 25% of electrical energy produced by renewables by 2023, making a very important quantitative leap. In recent years we have considerably increased renewable power, since 2019 we have doubled it to reach the current 190 MW after many years of paralysis”.
Martí Ribas stressed the importance of working together, private companies and the Administration, and of joining forces to move forward on the road to the energy transition. “It is essential to work hand in hand with the administrations to make progress in the energy transition. This action is an important step towards the goal of zero emissions and has been achieved with the collaboration of all agents and administrations working together with the goal of decarbonisation”.
The end of fuel oil
From now on, the 2 engines (BW8 and BW9) of the Eivissa power plant will operate a maximum of 1,500 hours per year with diesel and will have an estimated total production of less than 35GWh each year. With the change of fuel, the plant has stopped consuming 13,000 tonnes of fuel oil each year, with a reduction of 88% in sulphur dioxide emissions (SOUND2) into the atmosphere.
With this change, natural gas is consolidated as the main fuel, accounting for 96% of production, leaving diesel as an emergency fuel.
This is a further step towards Endesa’s goal of achieving a completely decarbonised energy system for electricity production by 2040. For this reason, the company is working to reduce emissions at existing facilities and is making a great effort to develop new renewable capacity in the Balearic Islands.
Endesa currently has three solar plants in Mallorca, which are already in service: Sa Caseta (21.83 MW), Biniatria (14.97 MW) and Son Reus (12.53 MW), which belong to a set of renewable projects that the company is building in the Balearic Islands, together with Son Orlandis (under construction) and Ca na Lloreta (under construction), located in Mallorca with a total capacity of 56.6 MWp and co-financed with ERDF funds, with a total investment of 47 million euros.
This action is in addition to the start-up last July at the thermal power plant in Maó (Menorca), which stopped using fuel oil as fuel on 12 July. With this action, the three engines of the plant located in the Menorcan municipality will operate a maximum of 1,500 hours a year with diesel and will have an estimated total production of 62 GWh each year. With the change of fuel, the plant will stop consuming 55,000 tonnes of fuel oil each year and will reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere by 88%.