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The Fuente Álamo Town Council is examining whether construction of a new biogas plant in the Los Morales area should be stopped altogether. The site is about two kilometres from the village of Las Palas and building work has been under way since October.

 

The issue began when a local protest group called Stop Biogas Fuente Álamo filed an appeal in June 2025 asking the regional environment ministry to suspend the licence for the plant. The group believes the project breaks several environmental and planning rules and therefore should not have been approved.

 

However, the environment ministry never responded to the appeal. Under Spanish administrative law, if an authority does not reply within one month, the effects of the original authorisation may be automatically suspended. Because of this, the protest group informed the Town Council in November that construction should now be halted because the silence from the ministry counts as an acceptance of their appeal by default.

 

This situation has prompted the Town Council to formally ask the ministry for clarification. Councillors want to know whether the environmental authorisation for the plant is now considered suspended because of the lack of response.

 

However, the regional ministry has since said that they have not received any request from the Town Council. They also say they are preparing a reply to the original appeal and insist that the plant’s environmental permits remain valid at this time.

 

The dispute is an ongoing one and goes far beyond bureaucratic mistakes. Residents recently protested outside the Town Hall because three biogas plants are planned for the wider Fuente Álamo area. One is already under construction and two more have been proposed.

 

At a recent council meeting, the mayor attempted to calm local fears by saying that the town will not accept waste from other municipalities. She also argued that only one biogas plant is actually operating at present and that it is needed to manage waste produced by hundreds of local farms.

 

Opposition parties criticised what they described as poor communication and a lack of clear information about the impact the projects may have on nearby towns and villages.

 

The Los Morales plant is being promoted by Bioenergy-Gesalor, a cooperative of local pig farmers and livestock producers, in partnership with Five Bioenergy, a company that specialises in renewable energy and the treatment of organic waste. According to both organisations, the aim is to convert pig slurry and other farm waste into useful products. These include renewable biometane, bio fertilisers and treated water that can be reused for agriculture.

 

Project outlines suggest the plant could process up to 2 million cubic metres of slurry each year once it becomes fully operational. Supporters say this would help create a more circular form of agriculture by turning farm waste into new resources. They argue that the project would reduce the risk of pollution from untreated slurry, cut reliance on fossil fuels and give farmers a reliable way to manage the waste produced by intensive livestock farming.

 

Opponents are not convinced. They point out that the Los Morales area has already been designated as vulnerable to nitrate contamination from agricultural activity. They warn that processing such large quantities of livestock waste could increase the risk of pollution affecting soil, aquifers and groundwater.

 

They also raise concerns about odours, emissions such as ammonia or methane, and the potential health and quality of life impact on people living nearby.

 

Image: Stop Biogas Fuente Álamo