Exide obtains new integrated environmental authorization for its Manzanares plant

The General Directorate of Environmental Quality of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha has issued a new integrated environmental authorization for the electrical accumulator factory of Exide Technologies, S.L.U. in Manzanares (Ciudad Real). The resolution, signed on October 2, 2026, by the general director, Tomás Villarrubia Lázaro, is published in the Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha (DOCM) No. 201, of October 20, 2026, in section III of other provisions and acts, with the official reference 2026/7486 and file AAICR-004.

The authorization is mandated by the legal calendar. Law 7/2022, of April 8, on Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy established in its fourth transitional provision a three-year period to adapt existing facilities, to which is added Order 180/2025, of December 4, which approves the technical instructions for the control of atmospheric emissions. The text is based on Legislative Royal Decree 1/2016, which recasts the Law on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, and Royal Decree 815/2013 on industrial emissions.

A plant of 118,000 square meters and 6.2 million batteries

The factory occupies a plot of 118,000 square meters with 42,000 square meters built in the industrial estate of the Alcázar road, on the grouping of plots 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. The authorized technical capacity is 6,200,000 units of electrical accumulators per year, with seven assembly lines, six charging rows, and five finishing lines for flooded and AGM batteries. The environmental identification number is NIMA 1320000108.

The facility carries an original authorization from December 4, 2008, published in DOCM No. 14 of January 22, 2009, and since then has accumulated successive revisions:

• Resolution of May 20, 2021, from the General Directorate of Circular Economy (DOCM No. 103 of June 1, 2021).
• Modification resolution of January 20, 2023 (DOCM No. 25 of February 6, 2023).
• Resolution of November 29, 2024, which approves the consolidated text after a non-substantial modification (DOCM No. 242 of December 16, 2024).

Seventy-six sources and a limit of one milligram of lead

The technical conditions detail 76 sources of channeled emissions to the atmosphere, grouped by processes: mills, heat sealers, boilers, crucible burners and curing chamber burners, torch extractions, charging tables, and unified sources. The chimneys shall have a minimum height of 10 meters, with exceptions of up to 14.5 meters in the unified sources SEM-1, SEM-2, MON-1, MON-2, and MON-3.

The emission limit values are set at 5 mg/Nm³ of particles in mills and heat sealers, 1 mg/Nm³ of lead —including the solid and gaseous fractions—, 200 mg/Nm³ of nitrogen oxides and 100 mg/Nm³ of carbon monoxide in the combustion groups, and 150 mg/Nm³ of sulfur dioxide and 10 mg/Nm³ of sulfuric acid at the loading tables. For immission, the limit is 50 µg/m³ of PM10 particles and 0.5 µg/m³ of lead as a daily average, with quarterly measurements of fifteen consecutive days at two perimeter locations.

Waters, soils and four piezometers

The resolution orders reinforced control of the environment. The holder must install a piezometric network of four piezometers —PZ-1 upstream and PZ-2, PZ-3, and PZ-4 downstream—, approved by resolution of December 9, 2025, and designed according to the recommendations of the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation of February 17, 2025. The first quarterly controls of lead in groundwater must be carried out within three months of publication.

Regarding discharges, the maximum lead content is set at 1 mg/liter at the five discharge points to the municipal collector of Manzanares, with a maximum flow of 15,000 m³/year for sanitary waters and an average flow of 50 m³/day at the industrial water treatment plant. The activity is included in Annex I of Royal Decree 9/2005 as potentially soil-contaminating, which mandates biennial periodic reports and soil controls at four points of the plot.

Waiver of waste management and financial guarantees

The new authorization incorporates the company’s request to waive its accreditation as a waste manager, as it has not carried out that activity. The processing accumulated several requests for documentation between October 2024 and August 2025, with responses from the holder registered on November 19, 2024, February 7, 2025, and on May 22, July 25, and September 26, 2025. The text was opened for public hearing on July 14, 2026, with a ten-day deadline, and no allegations were presented.

The conditions require a liability insurance for hazardous waste with a minimum guaranteed sum of 450,000 euros, in accordance with Royal Decree 208/2022, and an environmental liability guarantee calculated through risk analysis. Noise levels are also set at 75 decibels during day and afternoon periods and 65 at night, with a prohibition on heavy machinery before 08:00 and after 22:00 hours.

The resolution does not exhaust the administrative route: an administrative appeal (recurso de alzada) may be filed before the head of the Department of Sustainable Development within one month from the day following its notification.

The authorization clarifies the environmental framework of one of the main industrial facilities in the Manzanares region and establishes, for the first time in an integrated manner, the lead limits in air, water, and soil, along with the monitoring system required to certify them. For the residents and the workforce, the document transforms into verifiable obligations—quarterly measurements, piezometers, and financial guarantees—what until now depended on successive consolidated texts.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha (DOCM), no. 201, of October 20, 2026, section III, pp. 37134-37165 (official reference: 2026/7486).