Environmental green light for the Langa de Duero biomethane plant

The General Directorate of Environmental Policy of the Regional Government of Castilla y León has issued a favorable environmental impact statement for the anaerobic digestion and biomethane generation plant project “Costa Lobera Bioenergía”, in the municipality of Langa de Duero (Soria). The resolution, signed on October 29, 2026, by the director general, José Guirao Sola, is published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León (BOCYL) no. 217, dated November 10, 2026, with reference BOCYL-D-10112026-217-19 and file EIAO/2025/SO/002. The favorable report is issued “solely for environmental purposes” and is subject to compliance with a set of conditions and other sectoral authorizations.

A file initiated in 2024 and processed as an ordinary evaluation

The promoter is the company Langa de Duero Enercorr XXI, S.L. (CIF B-25460601, registered office in Tárrega, Lleida). The request to initiate the environmental authorization and environmental impact assessment procedure entered the General Directorate of Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability on January 18, 2024.

The project falls under Annex II of Law 21/2013, of December 9, on environmental assessment (group 9, section b), and due to its gas pipeline, under group 4, section f), which would subject it to a simplified assessment; however, the promoter expressly requested an ordinary assessment under Article 7.1 d) of the same regulation. The competence to issue the statement corresponds to the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Environment, and Environmental Policy, according to Decree 2/2026, of June 13, and is decentralized to the General Directorate of Environmental Policy by Decree 30/2021, of November 4.

The public information process was opened with an announcement published in BOCYL no. 226, of November 24, 2025, and on the notice board of the Langa de Duero City Council. The proposed statement was formulated by the Council for Environment, Urbanism, and Territorial Planning of Castilla y León.

124,900 tons of waste and 8.5 million cubic meters of biomethane

The facility will be located on plots 82 and 5159 of polygon 31, with a total area of 56,901 square meters and 3,947.87 square meters of built area, next to the promoter’s current slurry treatment plant. Its main magnitudes are:

• Projected capacity: 124,900 annual tons of waste and by-products.
• Input materials: 79,500 tons of pig slurry, 33,000 of cereal straw, 6,200 of solid by-products, and 6,200 of liquid by-products.
• Estimated biomethane production: 8,514,218 Nm³/year.
• Outputs: 37,214 annual tons of compost, 43,233 of liquid digestate, and 320 of rejects.
• Evacuation pipeline of 412 meters to the NEDGIA REDES DISTRIBUCION GAS network.
• Forecasted electricity consumption: 12,072,214 kWh/year; water consumption: 18,988 m³/year.

Odors, water, and livestock routes, the main conditions

The conditions mandate an olfactometric study in accordance with the UNE 13725 standard during the first year of operation, with at least three meteorological stations, to ensure there is no impact on the population. It also requires “zero discharge” to the public hydraulic domain through the internal management of wastewater and stormwater.

Other highlighted requirements are:

• Setback of the facility fencing at least 10 meters from the wooded area, and 25 meters for new installations and the digestate pond, relative to the “Monte Picón de Galiana” mountain.
• Authorization for the occupation of the livestock route “Cañada Real de Ganados Trashumantes”, with which the project territorially coincides, in accordance with Article 14 of Law 3/1995.
• Closed liquid digestate tanks with a surface area not exceeding 2,000 m² each.
• Application of the best available techniques conclusions of the EU Implementing Decision 2018/1147.

One allegation from ASDEN and 16 consulted bodies

During the public information period, an allegation was submitted by the Soriana Association for the Defense and Study of Nature (ASDEN), which questioned the impossibility of obtaining copies of the documentation and the lack of a plan or program justifying the territorial implementation of the project. Sixteen administrations and entities were consulted; among the reports received, the Duero Hydrographic Confederation warned that the plant is partially located in the police zone of two streams tributary to the “arroyo de La Nava”, and the Civil Protection and Emergencies Agency rated the flood risk index in the municipality as medium.

The declaration notes that the plant is located approximately 2.5 kilometers from the urban center of Langa de Duero and does not coincide with Natura 2000 Network spaces, although the pipeline passes about 3 kilometers from the SAC “Riberas del Río Duero y afluentes” (ES4170083).

Four-year validity and annual control

The declaration will expire if the project execution does not begin within four years of its publication, according to Article 43 of Law 21/2013. The promoter must communicate the start dates of the works, their completion, and the commissioning, and submit annual reports of the environmental monitoring program to the substantive body.

The decision clears the main environmental procedure for a facility linked to the management of slurry and agricultural waste in the region, but it does not yet authorize it to operate: the integrated environmental authorization and the mandatory waste and water abstraction authorizations remain pending. For the residents of Langa de Duero and the agro-livestock sector, the text establishes the rules of the game—distances, odors, traffic, and digestate management—with which the activity must coexist once it starts.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla y León, No. 217, November 10, 2026, section I.D Other Provisions, p. 187 (official reference: BOCYL-D-10112026-217-19).