The facilities, part of the European project Bio+a Málaga, required an investment of two million euros, partially co-financed by Next Generation EU funds. The center is located on a plot of nearly 20,000 square meters and is designed to separate operational and storage areas from offices and training rooms.
The operations yard includes two distinct areas for collecting wood, one for material from the national park and another for diverse woods. It also features technical rooms, a scale for weighing transport trucks, and a warehouse for storing dry wood chips ready for transport.
Biomass will be sourced from forest logging, pruning, and thinning. The center is designed to process approximately 2,600 tons of wood annually, with an estimated annual production of 1,500 to 2,500 tons of wood chips.
The president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Salado, highlighted that the center is a significant step towards sustainability and the fight against climate change in the province, particularly in the environmentally valuable Sierra de las Nieves National Park. He emphasized its contribution to the circular economy and job creation.
Salado explained that the produced wood chips will be used in biomass boilers installed in public buildings across all municipalities of the Sierra de las Nieves, replacing fossil fuels, reducing CO2 emissions, and lowering energy costs.
Furthermore, the center will serve as a hub for training and research in silviculture and biomass. The utilization of forest waste also aids in forest health and fire prevention, in an area with approximately 33,000 hectares of public forests requiring silvicultural treatments.
