The Portucel Soporcel group is one of Portugal’s largest generators of forest biomass renewable energy. It produces over 90% of all its electricity by taking advantage of this resource, thereby optimising its efficient use in the manufacture of both intermediate and end products. The main sources of this fuel that the Group uses to generate its energy are lignin removed during the pulping process, bark and wood waste, obtained from mill or forest sources.

As a result of the Group’s strategy in the energy field, it also has an increasingly important role in generating renewable energies at national level, in particular biomass.
Analysing its evolution over the years, thanks to investments in mechanisms to minimise the use of fossil fuels, the Group reduced its fossil CO₂ emissions by 58% between 2000 and 2008.

In order to continue this highly successful evolution, the Group has invested in the building of two biomass-fuelled thermoelectric power plants, one at the Cacia mill and the other at the Setúbal mill, which together will produce a net amount of around 167 GWh/year for the corresponding grid.

The Group also enjoys an important role as the country’s largest generator of forest biomass energy at its co-generation plants, where combined production of electrical and thermal energy is significantly more efficient than the conventional process that generates electric power only.

The total electricity produced from forest biomass by the Portucel Soporcel group in 2007 corresponded to 55% of the total energy produced from this renewable source in Portugal. The Group’s total electricity generated in 2007 corresponded to 2% of the national electricity consumption.