2023-11-22 16:58:40
Group 2 of the Aboño (Carreño) thermal power plant, which will be adapted to replace coal with natural gas as fuel as announced on October 27, will also later be able to use green hydrogen, as well as steel gases, according to the project promoted by the energy company EDP and Corporación Masaveu, the new partner of the Portuguese company in the ownership of the thermal power plant, the most important in Asturias, and which they will share 50%. The incorporation of green renewable gas is one of the aspects that the promoters include in the plant transformation project, which has just begun its environmental processing. The investment will amount to 40 million euros.
The main adaptation work of the group (consisting of different constructions and adaptations of equipment, systems and infrastructure) will be undertaken in 2025, coinciding with the stoppage of group 2 to carry out a general review at the end of the campaign. It will be several months of tasks. The group, once adapted, will restart its activity in the second half of 2025, anticipating by several months the abandonment of coal, which EDP had announced for the end of that year.
The incorporation of green hydrogen as a fuel in the future, announced now, will in turn allow the energy company to materialize its second milestone in the decarbonization process, with the announced abandonment of natural gas by the multinational in 2030.
With this, EDP and Masaveu guarantee the survival of the thermal group beyond the deadlines for the renunciation of fossil fuels. Aboño is a determining complex for the supply of electricity to the large Asturian industry.
The revaluation of blast furnace gases to generate electrical energy, which is already being used in the two Aboño groups, in turn avoids the annual emission of one million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The conversion will contribute “very significantly”, according to EDP, to the improvement of air quality. Emissions of particles and sulfur oxides, and 80% of nitrogen oxides, will be reduced practically 100%. Regarding CO2 emissions, the average reduction will be 30%, varying depending on the volume of steel gases that are revalued in the plant.
The transformation work will be undertaken, according to EDP, with a circular economy strategy that makes it possible to take advantage of existing equipment.
After these works, group 2 will have a net power of 494 megawatts, similar to the current one, since after the conversion it will not be necessary to power essential equipment for the use of coal, such as mills, conveyor belts and the desulfurization installation.
In parallel, EDP continues to advance work to transform the Aboño energy complex into a green hydrogen valley. The company plans to develop a first phase with a capacity of 150 megawatts, whose environmental processing is also underway, and whose implementation of this capacity is scheduled for the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026.
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