Both on the opening day and in the following on the evolution of the sector and innovation and new projects, the fifth edition of the Biomass Fair of Catalonia has begun today strongly when it comes to presenting the situation and the objectives for biomass.
"It's a sector that can create a lot of jobs"; "92 percent of the energy in Catalonia is imported and biomass helps reduce this dependency; and "40 per cent of the forests in Europe have no use at all and in Catalonia more than 65 per cent." These are some of the phrases heard in an edition that also includes eighty-seven exhibitors and several parallel activities. Against forest abandonment and imported energy: Biomass Fair Montserrat Barniol, Director General of Forests and representative of the Generalitat of Catalonia at the opening of the fair, was the one who mentioned that "92 percent of the energy of Catalonia is imported and biomass helps to reduce this dependency. " Beside her, Anna Erra, Mayor of Vic (Barcelona), added the value of the quote they inaugurated: "We are committed to new energy sources and will join forces to make the Biomass Fair a benchmark to help supplement the existing deficiencies". ".
Thus began a new biennial edition of a fair, this time without the adjective of forestry, which will be open until Saturday, February 25. In the end, there are eighty-seven exhibitors (institutions, biomass boilers, machinery, installers, manufacturers, consultants ...) present at the Sucre exhibition center in Vic. Most come from Catalonia, but also from Euskadi, Valencian Community, Community of Madrid, Navarra, Aragon and Galicia.
Regulatory framework to ensure that management is organized Econova Europe is one of the companies present between the exhibitors and the Biomassa Catalonia Cluster one of the entities with the most weight in the contest. Representatives of both have also participated in the first days of the fair: Evolution of the biomass sector. Xavier Solanas, Director of Production and Quality of the former stated that "40% of the forests in Europe have no use and in Catalonia it is more than 65%".
Solanes defended forest certification as a way to guarantee the sustainable exploitation of these forests and because "the market already demands these guarantees of sustainability of the resource". Ferran Garrigosa, manager of the Cluster Biomassa Catalunya, called for "a regulatory framework to ensure that things are done in an orderly manner", as well as adding that "biomass promotes the employment of people at risk of exclusion".
Workshop to train future biomass employees Several speakers have mentioned precisely the quality of biomass as a "strategic sector that can generate many jobs". One of the parallel activities of the fair held this morning was aimed at training good professionals for some of these jobs. These are the training days for schools, with which students from the training centers specializing in forestry studies have been approached with different concepts about the forest biomass sector.
The schools that have participated are: Santa Coloma de Farners, Agrarian of the Solsonès, of Quintanes Vocational Training, Institute of Horticulture and Gardening of Reus and Agrária of Amposta. The parallel activities are complemented by the first edition of the Biomassa Catalunya 2017 Awards, as was also announced at the presentation of the fair last Monday at the Vic Town Hall.