Greenalia receives the first biomass balers, and begins the cleaning of Spanish forests

Corresponding with the start of the period of greatest risk of forest fires in Galicia, Greenalia intensifies the work of cleaning the Galician forest with the start-up of new packing units.

During this summer, Greenalia will start up 20 new forest biomass packers, of which the first units have already started. At the start-up of the plant, a total of 30 new equipment will be operating.

On this occasion, the equipment delivered was manufactured entirely in Asturias, consisting of Dingo AD824 (Dingoma, S.A., Jarrio) and Monra ENFO-2000 packers (Ramón Castro Talleres, S.L., Barres). These equipment, specially adapted to the forest land and infrastructure of Galicia, have been chosen for their versatility, tight dimensions and speed of movement.

As the next step, the biomass packers mounted on forwarders of the Finnish producer Logset, supplied by their distributor in Spain Forest Pioneer, S.L. will be incorporated during the month of July. With the incorporation of this Nordic machinery, it has been sought to increase the benefits and safety in those more complicated mountains of the Galician geography.

With its pressing and tying process, the Monra ENFO-2000 reduces by 80% the volume of the biomass by making compact, manageable and resistant bales that can be transported and stored easily. It is also designed to be quickly coupled and uncoupled to the base vehicle through a “multilift” hook system patented by Greenalia for forestry use.

The start-up of these 30 packing equipments will allow the management of nearly 500,000 tons of waste wood needed to supply the biomass electric plant. To this end, Greenalia has signed binding contracts with the leading forestry companies in Galicia for the management of the residual biomass generated in their uses, which will thus fulfill their legal obligations in an easy and economical manner.

The removal of the remains of the forest will generate for the forest owners savings in the cleaning of their mountains of 124 million euros during the useful life of the plant.

Greenalia’s investment in forestry machinery will thus reach 15 million euros and will involve a generation of 65 direct jobs between machinery operators and forest technicians.