Clean fuels accounted for only 0.53% of the petrol and diesel market in 2006

Sales of biofuels in Spain increased 19% over the previous year, according to data compiled by the Association of producers of renewable energies (APPA) in 2006. This increase in sales resulted, however, totally inadequate to dispose of the increase in domestic production of bioethanol and biodiesel, which grew by 44%. In 2005, only the export has managed to partially offset this imbalance, although this option is not sustainable over time under the growing self-sufficiency of many foreign markets and the expected increase in the Spanish production of biofuels.

In order to reverse this trend and to fulfill the objective of 5.75% of biofuels set for 2010 in the renewable energy (PER), APPA Plan considered indispensable and extremely urgent, and thus it has been proposed to the Government, the implementation in Spain of a system of obligation of biofuels to increase their consumptionthat in 2006 represented only 0.53% of the domestic market of petrol and diesel for transport. APPA biofuels considers it necessary that this obligation will be launched in 2008 with a minimum target of 4.25% for bioethanol and biodiesel.

The production of biofuels in Spain stood at 445.577 tonnes (t), 2006, of which 72% corresponded to bioethanol (321,000 t) and the rest to bio-diesel (124.577 t). This total figure of production is a 44% greater than the number the previous year. At the end of last year they were operating in Spain a total of 16 floors of biofuel production, of which 12 are four of bioethanol and biodiesel.

Sales in Spain of biofuels from domestic plants have grown up in 2006, however, at a rate much lower than that of the production, increasing only 19 per cent over the previous year, reaching the 241.849 tonnes, of which about 74 per cent corresponded to bioethanol (178.940 t) and the rest to bio-diesel (62.909 t).

The weakness of domestic demand for biofuels has only been able to be compensated with export to other European markets, which Spanish biofuels industry allocated in 2006 a total of 193.256 tons, i.e. 44% of all saleswhich represents ten percentage points more than in the preceding year.

"This business model, increasingly dependent on foreign markets, is not sustainable in time," says Roderic Miralles, President of APPA biofuels, "which, on the one hand, many of our external markets such as, for example, the German, will leave soon to be capable of absorbing as it has been a part of the Spanish production and"", on the other hand, the Commission would substantially increase in the coming months and years."

In energy terms, national sales of bioethanol from Spanish plants accounted for a market share of 1.57% of the whole of the gasoline of automobile consumption in Spain in 2006 (the 7.248.856 equivalent tonnes of petroleum (tep)). In relation to the totality of the automotive diesel fuel marketed in the same period (24.615.223 pet), the sales of biodiesel from Spanish plants reached only 0.23 per cent market share.

Market share of biofuels in Spain globally, biofuels reached a quota of only 0.53% of the domestic market of petrol and diesel for transport in 2006 in Spain. Although this percentage is somewhat higher than the previous year (0.44%), the rate of increase is totally inadequate to achieve the objective of 5.75% of biofuels expected in the PER. This Plan, approved by the Government in August 2005, establishes a consumption of biofuels target for 2010 of 2.2 million pet. To meet this objective it will be necessary to multiply the current figure of consumption of biofuels in Spain almost by 13 in the next four years.

Faced with this situation and to promote strongly the domestic demand for biofuels, APPA biofuels considers urgent the adoption of legal Spain of an obligation of biofuels, as recommended by the European Commission and as already made or envisaged doing so nine Member States of the European Union.
By an obligation of this type oil operators must be in the market every year a growing percentage of biofuels. APPA defends, and thus it has been proposed to the Ministry of industry, that this obligation will be launched in 2008 at a level of 4.25% applicable separately and in parallel both for biodiesel and bioethanol in relation to diesel and gasolinerespectively. This percentage should go up every year to 5.75% in 2010 and 10 per cent by 2015.

"The Spanish industry is able to produce bioethanol and biodiesel in sufficient quantities to meet the objectives that we propose as of 2008", said Roderic Miralles. Only the production capacity already installed at the end of 2006 in Spain - 441.000 tons of bioethanol and 244,000 tons of biodiesel - already would cover 1.57% of the consumption of fossil fuels in energy terms. "If this already installed capacity add new biodiesel and bioethanol plants which will become operational in Spain between 2007 and 2010 can perfectly meet with national production objectives", says Miralles.
APPA biofuels considers, moreover, that this obligation of biofuels will only be really effective if its elements, including percentage targets, are well designed and are complemented by a number of other regulatory measures of fiscal, agricultural and administrative nature for the biofuels that APPA has already proposed to the Government asfor example, the extension of the current tax incentive in favour of biofuels for a period of at least ten years since the launch of each installation, as it includes the PER.