Key facts:

• Location: Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real, Spain).
• Bioethanol production capacity: 26,000 metric tons/year (33 million litres/year).
• Technology: Fragasa.
• Commissioned: 2006.
• Investment: € 8 million.
• Raw material: Raw alcohol (92º) from wine surpluses.
• CO2 emissions avoided: 48,000 metric tons/year.
• Oil consumption avoided: 119,340 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).
• Owned by: Bioetanol de La Mancha, S.L. (50% ACCIONA Biocombustibles, 50% Uriel Inversiones).

Significance:

The alcohol used at this plant comes from the purchases that the European Union Intervention body makes in the wind power market as a means of regulating the sector (in application of the Union's Common Agricultural Policy). These wine surpluses are transformed into 92º alcohol for distillation and are marketed in Spain by the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA) through tenders at its facilities in Tarancón (Cuenca) and Tomelloso (Ciudad Real).

Castille-La Mancha is Spain's top wine producer, the country's largest region in terms of surface area dedicated to vineyards (almost 50% of the total in both cases) and accounts for 70%

• 80% of the regulated alcohol production in Spain. The fact that this production returns to the region closes the product cycle, creates a new industrial activity and helps Castille
• La Mancha's commitment to renewable energy sources.