Biomethane is also strategic in the management of water as a resource
The conversation about water has definitively changed. For years, water scarcity was addressed almost exclusively from an environmental perspective. Today, it is also beginning to be analyzed from an economic and business point of view.
A recent MSCI report estimates that water scarcity already generates a global economic risk of $485 billion annually, affecting both company operations and their supply chains. The industrial and energy sectors are among the most exposed.
The key is that proper water management will cease to be solely an environmental obligation and become an element of competitiveness.
Spain faces a particularly relevant challenge
Our country combines three circumstances that force a rethinking of the resource management model:
- high pressure on water resources
- strategic agriculture for the national economy
- and significant livestock and agri-food production, which affects the nitrification of soils and aquifers.
Traditionally, these challenges have been addressed independently: water management on one hand, the management of agri-livestock by-products on the other, and energy production in parallel. Reality proves every day that they are part of the same system.
From managing waste to managing resources
At IAM Carbonzero, we advocate that the true change consists of moving away from talking about waste and starting to talk about resources.
Agri-livestock by-products contain three elements of enormous value:
- renewable energy,
- nutrients,
- and water.
Biomethane plants allow for the simultaneous recovery of these resources through a circular economy model that benefits both the territory and agricultural and livestock farms.
While biomethane replaces fossil natural gas, the digestate can become a source of recovered nutrients for agriculture, and the water present in the process can be managed much more efficiently than in traditional models.
It is not just about producing renewable energy. It is about optimizing the use of all resources contained in agri-livestock by-products.
Water must also enter the circular economy equation
Water availability will increasingly condition industrial location, agricultural competitiveness, and investment decisions. Companies capable of reducing consumption, reusing resources, and closing production cycles will have a growing competitive advantage.
In this context, modern biomethane plants, using the best available techniques, represent a circular economy infrastructure that integrates different objectives:
- recovery of agri-livestock by-products
- renewable energy production
- nutrient recovery
- emission reduction
- and more efficient water management within the production cycle.
It is becoming increasingly evident that energy, water, and agriculture can no longer be planned independently.
The opportunity for rural areas
The energy transition is often associated only with the generation of clean energy. However, its true impact can be much greater when it also contributes to strengthening the resilience of the territory.
In a context of climate change, increasingly frequent drought episodes, and growing pressure on natural resources, projects capable of integrating renewable energy, sustainable water management, and by-product recovery provide strategic value for the rural world.
We are not just talking about decarbonizing. We are talking about building a more efficient model for the use of available resources.
An integrated vision of the future
Europe is moving toward a model where competitiveness will increasingly depend on the ability to utilize existing, and increasingly local, resources instead of consuming new ones. Water will be one of the main indicators of that competitiveness. Biomethane, understood as a technology that integrates renewable energy, nutrient recovery, and circular economy, can play a much more relevant role than is usually recognized.
The energy transition does not consist only of producing clean energy. It consists of making better use of every resource in the territory. And water will likely be one of the most valuable.
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