THE DEVELOPMENT OF T HE ASSOCIATION OF FO R E S T R Y OWNERS IN ´EL MASSIS DEL ´ FOR THE E N E R G E T I C EXPLOITATION OF FORE ST BIOMASS.

6TH UPC INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

VILANOVA I LA GELTRÚ – 2013

International Group 1:

Oriol Costa Echaniz

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ,

Brandon Summers

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Stephan Maier

Graz University of Technology Graz, Austria

Stina Tang

The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Nick Kerckhaert

Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ABSTRACT

This report defines and discuss sustainable energy sources - bioenergy - in particular, regarding financial, production, distribution and consumption aspects. It also discusses community involvement by two exemplifications - the bioenergy generation at the former landfill site in El Massif del Garraf, and the The Association of Forestry Owners (APF) of el Massís del Garraf. This shows that community involvement is clearly an important factor in order to find sustainable ways to manage sustainable energy sources; because having local groups, or “grassroots” projects means having people who live close to the problematic area and experience the environmental issues in their everyday life involved in finding the solutions to the problems.

INTRODUCTION

The is located in the . It occupies a triangular area between the Llobregat valley, Penedès depression and the Mediterranean, providing low mountains. Its maximum heights are around 600 metres. The Garraf Massif’s area is about 9,967 ha, ranging from sea level to , (593 meters). The Garraf Massif is a Natural Park area with a certain level of legal protection against human action. The main threats to the mountains are building new developments and the many quarries that contribute to the massive destruction of the animal and plant habitats. As a consequence many of the degraded areas are difficult to rehabilitate and resolve problems for the future. The Vall d’en Joan has been a very contaminated area during a long period, because for many years there has been one of the biggest Europe’s landfill. It was active from 1974 to 2006, during 32 years. Approximately there are 23 million tons of garbage accumulated in the tank. This landfill has contaminated the aquifers. The degassing plant and energetic use of biogas generated in the landfill will work for 25 years until they stop the gas.

Community participation In 1989 the question about an integrated development of Garraf arose. Important factors to start interorganisational work was the plan and the design of the county’s development and the relationship between citizens and public services. Landscape architects planned a redesign of the Garraf landfill to restore the area simultaneously with the closing of the landfill. With this redesigned artificial area a more attractive level was created which can be used as a connecting platform for touristic visitors to the National Park (Plataforma Arquitectura)

METHODOLOGY

In this report, written sources and online sources have been consulted in order to gain information about sustainable energy sources, bioenergy, and the two exemplifications of community involvement. DISCUSSION

4.1 SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS (P.5) Usual energy systems are a heavy stricken network of financial, economical, social, mobile and distributional aspects. Expanding the use of renewable technologies such as wind, wave, hydro, solar, geothermal and biomass are steps toward a more sustainable energy profile, production, consumption and hence economy. However, the use of renewable energy entails limiting factors such as competition with food/fodder crops (biomass), restrictions due to polluted matter (nuclear), waste and incineration.

Considering the world as a global energy system it is crucial to create analyzing methods on a macro scale. A study at University of Utrecht shows that it is possible to reach a 95% sustainably sourced energy supply by 2050 worldwide. (Energy Strategy Reviews, 2012)

The world is steadily facing global sustainability shortages. Overproduction and overconsumption of energy has started to show human society the limits of global resources. The society’s never ending hunger for more creates fundamental crises (financial, energy, hunger, war), endangers the supply of energy/water/food and provokes global ecological changes such as climate change (e.g. problematic of greenhouse-gases (GHG), artificial micro-climate generation, temperature, natural disasters etc.). In front of this changing world, sustainable development needs basic structural and behavioural changes from energy intensive systems to sustainable cradle-to-cradle energy systems (Braungart and McDonough, 2002). In a historical view human society has been more or less constructing sustainable energy systems. Transitions of socio-ecological regimes give us a clear sight on the different quantities of energy consumption each community faces. From hunters and gatherers to agrarian in the past, from agrarian to industrial more or less on its finite depending on the different varying statuses of development of world’s communities (Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2011; Applied Energy, 2012). Developed countries have more or less fully developed industrial economies. Keeping high technological levels is helpful and a burden to reach sustainability in energy systems at the same time. Due to the National and European Union funding the share of renewable energy should be increased as well as the efficiency by investing in green/ low carbon infrastructure/technologies (European Commission, 2013).

Compared with developed countries, developing countries lack of broad access to basic energy services, they need more competitive industries for future economic growth, indigenous renewable energy industries and an improving of market/national stability. To prevent western rebound effects of exploding non-sustainable energy consumption, developing countries need elaborated accompany in issues of distribution of global resources, reducing pollution, improved public health etc. What developed and undeveloped countries have in common: global transition to clean, low carbon energy systems (TWAS, 2008).

Evaluations of existing examples of sustainable energy systems demonstrate partial sustainability. Full sustainable energy systems are still out of range. The existing energy system structures need high amounts of energy for energy production itself, for industry, households, and mobility. The whole transport- and production-chain of material- energy-flows and cost intensive technologies has to be elaborated to reach a full sustainable energy system cycle. (SPI, 2013)

Governmental funding (top-down) can force structural changes in sustainable energy systems as well as private investments/actions (bottom-up) can. Nonetheless next steps to reach strong sustainability in energy systems need engagement of more than pure political and financial senses.

4.2 Bioenergy (P.6)

The bioenergy is a type of renewable energy from the use of organic and industrial materials formed in a biological or mechanical process of substances that constitute plants, humans, animals or their remains. The energy utilization of biomass is made directly or by conversion into other substances which can be exploited as a fuel. The different forms of biomass are fuels energy and waste, (agricultural, forestry, livestock, urban, sewage sludge and computers, plants, etc.)

Natural biomass corresponds to forests, trees, shrubs, crop plants, etc. For example, logging produce lots of waste with a high energy, which are not suitable for the manufacture of furniture or paper, such as leaves and twigs, and that can be tapped as an energy source. The wood waste can be harnessed to produce energy. The "energy crops" are another form of biomass plantations and it is exploited only for energy purposes.

Residual biomass however, involves obtaining energy from wood and agricultural waste, urban waste, livestock waste, manure, sewage sludge, etc.. Agricultural waste can also exploit energy. The following picture shows the primary energy production with solid biomass in the European Union (2010).

Reference: www.todosbiomasa.com

In the European Union, Germany and France, with 12,230 and 10,481 mtoe, are the production leaders followed by the Scandinavian countries, which are considered the true leaders according to its population, for example, Sweden and Finland cover more than half of their biomass heat. Spain is still a country highly dependent on fossil fuels. Oil consumption to total primary energy accounts for 47.2% and 23.4% natural gas.

Total primary energy consumption by energy source in 2009, EU

Reference: Renewable primary energy consumption (CSI 030/ENER 029) - Assessment published Apr 2012

This graph shows that in Europe there is still a heavy reliance on fossil fuels and only 9% of the total primary energy consumed is renewable energy. Within these renewable energy, the fisrt place is occupied by biomass and waste with a consumption of 68.6%, second would be the hydro (18.5%), the wind is the third one, (7.5%), followed by geothermal, (3, 8%) and the last one is solar (1.6%). If you look through the Biomass and waste separately, we can see that the wood and wood waste is representing the highest %, 67% of the total.

Traditional biomass (firewood, charcoal, manure and crop residues) are still the main source of energy for 2-3 billion people worldwide. As global energy demand is increasing with rising quality of standards and population increases, many countries are turning to biomass resources as fuel for commercial-scale electricity production especially given its ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

According to a new report from Pike Research, “worldwide biomass power generation capacity could grow to 86 gigawatts (GW) by 2021, from 58 GW in 2011. That represents a required total investment of $104 billion from 2008 to 2021. Under a more aggressive growth scenario, capacity could reach 115 GW ($135bn).” However, one of the main concerns regarding biomass is - what could have been the usage of the waste or biomass instead? Could the household waste such as paper and food waste have been recycled? Is it moral to grow “energy crops” when millions of people are starving in developing countries?

4.3 The Garraf Landfill Site and Bioenergy Production

After years of collecting trash from the Area Metropolitana de Barcelona in 1986 the Departamento de Politica Territorial y Obras publicas (DPTOP) passed a special environmental protection bill that would turn the Garraf landfill site into a national park and eventually lead to the closure of the landfill site. In 1992 it was introduced to form part of the network of green spaces and through community involvement using various methods of pedagogy to increase awareness and involvement of the nine different communities that the Garraf park serves (Liliana, 2003). Enric Batlle i Joan Roig, architects and Teresa Galí, an Agricultural engineer began the restoration process of the landfill area of Garraf in 2002 but taking the entire area of the landfill and making a proposal to prevent the emissions of greenhouse gases which were estimated to be equivalent to 20% of the total emissions of the Area Metropolitana de Barcelona. The project which was finished in 2010 consisted of the installation of an impermeable layer, followed by a layer of gravel to allow the last layer of vegetation to be planted on the top. Below is the scheme of the project that shows the three stages of restoration of the landfill (Franco, 2012).

Currently three different associations are working in the park giving guided tours and educating visitors on the functions that have been introduced and the changes made. Each of these educational centers has the capacity to house around 80 people and are catered to house students or families for weekend stays in order to educate them on the park (DIBA)

Starting in 2003 Endesa has constructed approximately 500 biogas catchment stations which have a depth of 20 meters and the energy harnessing potential of 1,048 kW per year. This energy is then transferred to the grid through a series of electricity lines that connect with the city nearby (ENDESA).

4.4 The Association of Forestry Owners (APF) of el Massís del Garraf (P.8) The APF Massís del Garraf encompasses private and public forestry owners of the area, and was created in order to promote biomass extraction in a collective way and to try to reduce the costs of extraction and biomass collection in the area. It comprises more than 1,000 acres (around 400 hectares) of three distinct regions - Garraf, Alt Penedès and Baix Llobregat. (EIXDiari, 2013) The municipalities of , Sant Pere de Ribes are part of the Garraf Massif APF as forest owners. The promoters are confident that the body profile and characteristics of collaborative public-private partnership are to help revitalise a sector almost nonexistent in the region (EIXDiari, 2013). Researching the potentials of the associations plans and actually executing these will provide a lot of work in the area, as well as managing the wood stock and extraction and distribution of the biomass will.

It is a brand new association, presented to the public on 20 February 2013. A big financial challenge is to write a forest management plan in accordance with current legislation and contact companies that want to exploit the forest to extract timber (RadioCubelles, 2013). Simultaneously, APF wants to commission a study on the economic-production and marketing of forest biomass in Garraf. In order to research the potential for biomass production, several professionals have been working in the last year under the impulse of Node Garraf, with the aim of exploiting the potential of biomass in the region (EIXDiari, 2013). Beyond economic benefits of removing natural resources, among the founding principles of the APF Garraf Massif there are fire prevention and the development of a culture of sustainable forestry. The forest area of Garraf is over 12,000 hectares and its production capacity for thermal use of forest fragment is at least 5,000 tons per year (Ecodiari, 2013). This ability of biomass production can be increased if we include the pruning of vineyards from urban areas. Distribution is a topic not yet mentioned by the association. They do plan to extract and collect the biomass collectively, but there is no information regarding plans for distribution of the biomass other than delivering it to the installations in the region, which will be the main consumer of their goods. Since forest biomass can be used to generate thermal energy to replace fossil fuels such as diesel or LPG, as used in several installations in the region, this would mean a reduction of more than 50% of their costs consumption Conclusions

Sustainable energy systems play a crucial role for future generations to be able to enjoy the same standard of living as is catered to the society today. As developing countries are developing their own infrastructures in order to reach the same standard of living as developed countries, the energy source in the sense of fossil fuels will not withstand much longer. At the same time - even if fossil fuels would have been a neverending source of energy, the greenhouse effect due to released carbon dioxide would still result in the energy source being impossible for a sustainable living.

Bioenergy as a sustainable energy source is questionable, to be said the least. To incinerate household or industrial waste is a better way to handle the waste than to put it straight into a landfill - at least the carbon dioxide released is not what was stored in fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide already in the loop of the Earth’s ecological systems. Also the methane gas, which is a much worse GHG than carbon dioxide, that would be generated from the landfill is thus avoided. However, incineration leads to a series of complex problems with e.g. dust, NOx and SOx gases which contributes to acidification and eutrophication of lakes and aquifers, if the flue ashes are not treated properly. To instead collect the methane gas is a more sustainable way of generating energy, but require more complex technology and time. Other issues with bioenergy were also highlighted - could the waste have been recycled instead of incinerated? Is it moral to grow “energy crops” when famine is still a common occurrence in the developing world?

The role of the community when it comes to sustainable energy sources have been exemplified in this paper through two examples related to The Garraf Massif. By transferring the old landfill site into a natural park, the area has become much more attractive to both locals and outside visitors. This is an exemplification of a successful community involvement to create a more sustainable community by utilising the potential of bioenergy of the landfill site instead of simply letting it degrade uncontrolled. Because of the natural park surrounding the old landfill site, the regulations regarding the methane collection operations are quite strict and thus providing a better method of waste management.

Another example of community involvement is the creation of APF this year, in order to further explore the possibilities of bioenergy from the Garraf region. This is a very new organisation, but considering the potential of the bioenergy in the region, the association should have plenty of opportunities to grow this sector in the region. Another point worth mentioning that most of the fuel consumption in Europe is still relying on fossil fuel, developing the bioenergy sector in Spain should generate positive environmental effects - not to mention new job opportunities and other indirect economic benefits.

In conclusion, in this report, the two exemplifications of community involvement clearly show that local groups, or “grassroot” projects, generate desirable results - because the people involved live close to the problem area and experience the environmental issues in their everyday life. The two cases presented - in particularly the bioenergy harvest of the former landfill site - show how the community in Garraf have found successful participatory ways of managing sustainable energy systems.

This report began with a discussion of sustainable energy systems - in particularly bioenergy - and then exemplified community involvement by looking into the Garraf Landfill site and the APF association of forestry owners in the Garraf region. Thus, the aim of the report - to discuss sustainable energy systems in general and bioenergy in particular, and illustrate community involvement - have been fulfilled. REFERENCES

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